
Copyright N".. 



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BOOKS FOR TEACHERS 
AND NORMAL SCHOOLS 

THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL. By 
J. D. Eqgleston, and Robert W. Bruere. 
Illustrated. 12mo, Cloth school $1.00 

CLASS TEACHING AND MANAGEMENT. 
By William Estabrook Chancellor. 
Cloth net 1.00 

HELPING SCHOOL CHILDREN. By Elsa 
Denison. Illustrated. Crown 8vo net 1.40 



HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK 




[See p. 78 



A Member of a Girls' Garden Club 



THE WORK OF 

THE RURAL SCHOOL 






BY 



JP D, EGGLESTON 

PRESIDENT OF THE VIRGINIA POLY- 
TECHNIC INSTITUTE, FORMERLY CHIEF 
OF FIELD SERVICE IN RURAL EDUCA- 
TION, U. S. BUREAU OF EDUCATION 
AND STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF 
PUBLIC INSTRUCTION IN VIRGINIA 

AND 

ROBERT W. BRUERE 



ILLUSTRATED 




•^4a 



HARPER 6- BROTHERS PUBLISHERS 

NEW YORK AND LONDON 

MCMXIII 



b1 






COPYRIGHT, 1913. BY HARPER a BROTHERS 

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 

PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER. 1913 



i-N I,: 






f ( 

€^^CI.A3 54631 



TO 

THE MEMORY OF 

FRANCIS W. PARKER 

AND 

SEAMAN A. KNAPP 

AND 
TO 

HOLLIS B. FRISSELL 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

CHAPTER I 

INTRODUCTION i 

Growing interest in rural education — Decline in agricul- 
tural production — Agricultural census of 19 lo — Rural school 
controls national food-supply — Demand for scientific farming 
and socialization of rural life — Widening outlook of rural edu- 
cation — What rural workers have been doing — A record of 
achievement. 

CHAPTER II 

THE COMMUNITY SURVEY 10 

Community survey necessary basis of effective school 
program — Scope of community survey — Example of successful 
use of community survey — Rural surveys made by Presby- 
terian Church — Recreation facilities of the country — "What 
country people like" — Small cost of community surveys — 
Essential to intelligent rural leadership. 

CHAPTER III 

THE HEALTH OF THE CHILDREN 26 

Children the nation's greatest asset — Fundamental im- 
portance of health — Exposing children to disease a social 
crime — Health and school progress — Country children less 
healthy than city children — Health movement versus anti- 
disease movement — Practical steps in medical inspection for 
rural schools — Sex hygiene — Atypical and mentally defective 
children — Profit and cost of medical inspection — The country 
doctor — ^Advantages of paid service — Conditions demand ira" 
mediate action, 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER IV 

PAGE 

SCHOOL GOVERNMENT AND THE COURSE OF 
STUDY 42 

Democratic versus arbitrary discipline — Story of the 
ground - squirrel and the water - dog — Honor system the 
democratic system — The Round Table in school government 
— Discipline and the course of study at the Rock Hill Experi- 
mental School — Living the law. 

CHAPTER V 

THE WIDENING OUTLOOK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 62 

Vocational training — Advantages of rural over city schools 
— Experiments in Cincinnati, Fitchburg, Rochester, and 
Munich — Contributions of United States government to rural 
education — Extension work — Short courses at agricultural 
colleges — Domestic science and shop work— The "cultural tra- 
dition" — Cooperation between colleges and rural schools — 
Extension work through corn and garden clubs — School- 
gardens — Home - gardens — The school - farm — Beginning of 
Farmers' Cooperative Demonstration Work. 

CHAPTER VI 

COOPERATIVE DEMONSTRATION WORK 86 

Neighbor Brown and Neighbor Jones — Work of Seaman 
A. Knapp — Demonstration methods — Spread of demonstration 
methods through corn and garden clubs — Effect on agricul- 
tural production — Scientific marketing to supplement scien- 
tific production — Rural Organization Service of United States 
Department of Agriculture. 

CHAPTER VII 

DEMONSTRATION WORK THROUGH THE RURAL 
SCHOOL 104 

Vocational training in the rural school — Practical not 
opposed to cultural — Demonstration compared with extension 
work — State aid in Minnesota — Experiment at Sparks, Mary- 
land — Children love to do things like grown-ups — Does demon- 
stration work commercialize? — Rebuilding the rural commu- 
nity through the rural school. 

vi 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER VIII 

PAGE 

THE SCHOOL-PLANT 124 

School-plant determined by school program — Minimum 
acreage for various types of schools — Provision for organized 
play — Convenience of location — Size of building — Correct 
schoolroom dimensions — Correct lighting — Heating — Ventila- 
tion — Decoration of schoolroom — Value of beauty — Correct 
seating and school progress — Blackboards — Cloakrooms — 
Lunchrooms. 

CHAPTER IX 

SOME NEGLECTED FACTORS IN SCHOOL EQUIP- 
MENT 147 

Insanitary rural schools — Filth destroys health and 
morals — Children's sanitary committees — The boy who was 
bumped — Clean outhouses — Needed, more outdoor schools, 
workrooms, school-cottages — The school-cottage and domestic 
science — Uses of the school-library — Selection of books — 
Values of leisure — Social-center work and the school -auditorium 
— Demand for architectural experts. 

CHAPTER X 

CONSOLIDATION AND TRANSPORTATION .... 173 

How do they work? — First-hand experience — Stock ob- 
jections — Overcoming difficulties — Consolidation and com- 
munity life — Cost — Wise spending versus wasteful thrift. 

CHAPTER XI 

THE TEACHER WHO IS THE CITIZEN-MAKER . 193 

The teacher makes the school — Demand for higher 
standards in rural teaching — Improved equipment and better 
salaries follow better teaching — Doing things that "cannot 
be done" — Drifting teachers — What the normal schools are 
doing — Demonstration work for teachers — Training teachers 
at work through improved supervision. 

CHAPTER XII 

FIRST AID TO THE CITIZEN-MAKER 224 

Shortage of trained teachers — Normal schools unable to 
meet the demand — Demonstration methods in the schoolroom 

vii 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

— Spread of district supervision — County superintendents 
overburdened — Conference of district supervisors at Jackson- 
ville — Plans for rural-school improvement — The trained 
teacher the key to rural-school problem. 

CHAPTER XIII 

THE OPPORTUNITY OP THE COUNTY SUPERIN- 
TENDENT 246 

Demand for rural leadership — Who are our county super- 
intendents? — Overworked and underpaid — Training of county 
superintendents — The scholar who didn't get anywhere — 
The superintendent who woke the people up — Scholarship 
harnessed to common sense — Starting at nowhere with nothing 
and getting somewhere with something — What is rural leader- 
ship? 

CHAPTER XIV 

THE STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC IN- 
STRUCTION 262 

Political jobbery — Pork-barrel government and the public 
schools — Demand for an educational program — Scope of edu- 
cational program — Taxation, land speculation, scientific pro- 
duction and marketing — Demand for an educational budget 
based on an educational program — "He must enter into the 
heart of the people's every-day experience" — The rural school 
of the future. 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

A Member of a Girls' Garden Club . . . . . Frontispiece 

Two Ohio Community Centers Facing p. 70 

a. School-building, Teachers' Residence, 

Horse-sheds for the Neighbors. 
&. School-building and House for Teachers 
AND FOR Domestic-science Classes. 
At the Rock Hill Experimental School .... " 74 -/ 
a. In the Garden. 
h. Consulting the Teacher. 
A Demonstration by The Boys' Pig Club of Caddo 

Parish, Louisiana " 106 v^ 

Types of Rural-school Buildings " 124 

a. The Olden Time — Still Familiar. 
h. Built after State Plans at Yancey, Virginia 
c. Modern Consolidated Schoolhouse and 
Transportation-wagons in Indiana. 

Common Interior Faults " 144 

Bad Lighting and a Glassy Blackboard. 

The School-library Is Essential " 150 

Organizing Play *' 164 

a. A Kansas Scene. 

h. A May-pole Dance, Lake County, Ohio. 
c. A Children's Free-for-all Race, in Ne- 
braska. (By the courtesy of the Inter- 
national Committee, Y. M. C. A.). 
Training Rural-school Teachers through Weav- 
ing, University of Wisconsin " 218' 

Cooking Equipment for One-room School in Vir- 
ginia; Cost, Ten Dollars " 230 v^ 

Celebrating Washington's Birthday ..... " 254 v' 
"The People Turned Out by the Hundreds. 
They Cleaned the Schoolhouse and the 
School-yard." 
A Lecture on Farm Sanitation in Iowa , , , , * * 272 v 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 



THE WORK OF THE 
RURAL SCHOOL 



INTRODUCTION 

DURING the past ten years the rural-school system 
of the United States has been in a condition of 
unprecedented ferment. Experiments looking to the 
fundamental reorganization of the rural-school program 
have been under way in practically all of the states. 
Modem school-buildings are springing up everywhere, 
transportation wagons by the thousands have been put 
in motion, and country roads are beginning to be im- 
proved to accommodate them. Normal schools, col- 
leges and universities, educational associations, the 
United States Department of Agriculture, and the public 
press have been manifesting a fresh interest in the educa- 
tion of country children and the social and economic re- 
habilitation of rural commtmities. In 1912 a new division 
was created in the United States Bureau of Education for 
the specific purpose of advancing the interests of the 
rural school and country life. For the first time since 
our pioneer days, when the nation was predominantly 
agricultural and the little red schoolhouse was the 
favorite symbol of the democratic American spirit, the 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

whole nation is turning with interested concern and con- 
structive purpose to the rural school. 

To what is this freshly awakened interest due? For 
an answer one must look to the facts of our agricultural 
development during the first decade of the twentieth 
century. 

In the Quarterly Journal of Economics for November, 
1912, Mr. J. L. Coulter, of the United States Bureau of 
the Census, epitomizes the findings of the Division of 
Agriculture of the Census of 19 10. The census shows 
that during the ten years from 1899 to 1909 agricultural 
production in the United States increased only 10 per cent, 
as compared with the preceding decade, while the popula- 
tion — the number of mouths to be fed — ^increased 2 1 per 
cent! And this failure of the food-supply to keep pace 
with the population was most serious in those staples 
upon which the elemental life of the nation most directly 
depends. To meet an increase of 21 per cent, in the 
population the aggregate production of wheat increased 
only 3.8 per cent., of orchard fruits only 1.8 per cent., 
while the production of corn actually decreased 4.3 per 
cent. The facts here brought to light make it plain that 
it is the menace of hunger that is turning the nation to 
the rural school as the only instrument capable of avert- 
ing wide-spread disaster. 

"We have now reached a stage in the history of this 
country," says Mr. Coulter, ''when farmers in average 
years do not produce much more of the raw materials 
used for food, forage, and clothing than is needed within 
the country. In poor years the production may not in 
future equal the demands of the consumers'' 

Here we have one of the important causes of the 
increased cost of living, of the grinding economic pressure 
that during recent years has perplexed the spirit of the 
nation and hampered the free onward motion of our 
national progress. When the farmers stop producing an 



INTRODUCTION 

abundant surplus our growing millions face not only- 
lowered standards of living, but in many cases actual 
want and starvation. When the harvests cease to be 
abundant the fires of our national life in cotmtry and city 
alike begin to bum low, the productive powers of the 
nation are checked — the entire economic and social 
organism suffers a kind of paralysis. 

Confronted by this danger, the nation is turning to the 
rural school because, owing to the changes wrought by the 
last century in our economic and social life, and more 
especially in the economic and social conditions surround- 
ing agricultural production, the rural school more than 
any other one instrument to-day controls the food-supply 
of the nation. 

Not since the days when the one-room school followed 
the pioneer into the wilderness and through literacy kept 
open the channels of civilization, has so great a responsi- 
bility rested upon the rural school ; never before have the 
workers in rural education faced such momentous oppor- 
tunities for patriotic service. 

And everywhere the rural-school workers are earnestly 
striving to meet this national crisis. The practical meas- 
ures which they are adopting point in two principal direc- 
tions, the one toward increased production through the 
diffusion of scientific knowledge, the other toward the 
socialization of rural life, in order that through economic 
cooperation and the development of a new social conscience 
the benefits of increased production may accrue not only 
to the nation at large, but to the local commimities and 
the homes of the individual producers. 

The need for development in both of these directions is 
revealed by the most cursory review of the history of 
agricultural lands and the evolution of social ideals in our 
rural commimities. 

There used to be a song, very popular in the days when 
the universal cry was ''Go West, young man, go West," the 
2 3 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

burden of which, recurring at the end of every verse, was, 
*'For Uncle Sam is rich enough to give us each a farm." 
At the time this pleasant family affluence did really exist 
in America. Uncle Sam did give us farms, hundreds and 
thousands of us, so that it is difficult for us to get out of 
our minds the fact that the days of his prodigality are 
over. But, alas, they are ! The records of the Bureau of 
the Census show that **the area available for agricultural 
purposes was very largely occupied between 1800 and 
1900." The essential meaning of this fact from the 
national point of view is that the future development of 
agricultural production must come through the applica- 
tion of science and modern methods of business manage- 
ment to the land already occupied. The apprentice 
system, the handing down of tradition from father to 
son, is inadequate to the new needs of agriculture as it 
has long since proved inadequate to the needs of large- 
scale machine production. The only effective way in 
which the rapidly growing science of cultivation, farm 
management, and marketing can be brought to bear 
upon agriculture is through the public school. 

But the crudeness of inherited agricultural methods is 
not alone responsible for the failure of agricultural pro- 
duction to keep pace with our growth in population and 
our advancing standards of living. An equally important 
factor has been the lack of social ideals in rural life which 
has had a demoralizing effect upon the uses to which 
agricultural lands have been put. The mere increase in 
agricultural production will not solve the rural-life problem 
unless at the same time the workers in rural education 
can cure what a country clergyman has called "the 
tuberculosis of American farm life — individualism." 

The spiritual evolution of the American country com- 
munity has recently been traced in a delightful and 
scholarly book by Dr. Warren H. Wilson, Superintendent 
of the Department of Church and Country Life of the 

4 



INTRODUCTION 

Presbjrterian Board of Home Missions. Dr. Wilson 
divides the history of the American country community 
into four periods — the periods of the Pioneer, the Land 
Farmer, the Exploiter, and the Husbandman. 

The Pioneer was a free-lance adventurer. He hunted 
and tanned, cleared the forest, plowed, harvested, and 
ground his grain — alone. ' ' He placed his cabin without re- 
gard to social experience," for he had no social experience 
to regard. His conception of democracy was a state in 
which every man was free to go his own way without 
reference to the ways of other men. His ideals were 
ideals of stark self-reliance and a jealous primitive inde- 
pendence. ''Self-preservation was the struggle of his 
life." He was a man without books, often without 
schools, usually without a consciousness of social obliga- 
tion. By choice, he lived and died alone. 

"The Land Farmer was the typical American country- 
man, who succeeded the Pioneer." He lived in a time 
of crude abundance. He swarmed across the country 
"seeking everywhere the first values of a virgin land." 
His thought for generations has been "to make his own 
farm prosperous, to raise some crop that others shall not 
raise, to have a harvest that other men have not, and 
to find a market that other men have not discovered, 
by which he and his farm and his family group may 
prosper. The Land Farmer has no idea of community 
prosperity." 

The Exploiter is peculiarly the product of the last 
twenty years. He is the man who gets his money, not 
by tilling the soil, but by speculating in land. He is the 
ultimate product of that crass individualism which is "the 
tuberculosis of American farm life." 

"The sign of exploitation is a rapid increase in the 
market value of farm lands, independent of any increase 
in essential value to the farmer, due to frequent sale and 
purchase." In his Agrarian Changes in the Middle West 

5 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

Mr. J. B. Ross tells us that ''farms which from the 
original entry until 1890 had been owned by one family, 
or which had changed owners but once or twice, and 
whose owners were proud to assert that their broad acres 
had never been encumbered with mortgages, since 1890 
have been sold as often as ten times, in more numerous 
cases four or five times, and a large part of the purchase 
price is secured by encumbering the estates." 

This exploitation of land is extending all over the 
country. In the Gulf States and the Carolinas, in Tennes- 
see and Kentucky,''prices of farm land have increased in the 
last five years from 2 5 to 1 00 per cent. ' ' Even in the most 
conservative centers of Pennsylvania the prices of farm 
land have increased in the same period from 20 to 25 per 
cent." Everywhere the increase in the market value of 
farm lands is largely independent of the increase in 
essential value to the farmer. In Indiana a net increase 
of 5 per cent, in the farmers' income had been attended 
by an increase in land values of more than 100 per cent. 

This rise in the market price of land no doubt received 
its first impulse from the preemption of our free lands; 
but the Exploiter, taking advantage of normally rising 
values, has ''bulled" the market, until the buying and 
selling of land has taken on an unwholesome speculative 
character. Men buy land, not to cultivate it in the in- 
terest of the commimity, but to sell it for an unearned 
profit. 

What are the results of this exploitation from the 
point of view of rural life and national economy? They 
are expressed in the terms "absentee-landlordism" and 
tenant farming. Surveys made by the experts of the 
Presbyterian Board show that in an area covering 1,764 
square miles of the best farm lands of Illinois 53 per cent, 
of the farmers are tenants, and similar surveys in Missouri 
show that "in many parts of this state more than half of 
the farmers are renters." These are typical examples of 

6 



INTRODUCTION 

a national tendency whose gravity is indicated by the fact 
that the farm lease throughout the United States generally 
is for one year only. The owner wishes to be free to sell 
on a rising market. Consequently the tenant takes as 
much out of the land as possible and puts as little as 
possible back into its permanent improvement. Dean 
Charles F. Curtiss, of the State College of Iowa, declares 
that "the American system of farm tenantry is the worst 
of which I have knowledge in any country." 

All these facts mean that vast tracts of land are being 
held out of cultivation, and that other vast tracts are 
being undercultivated and "skinned." The census of 
1900 showed that 49.4 per cent., or slightly less than one- 
half of all the land in farms in the United States, was 
improved. In spite of the rise in the market value of 
farm products, which during the last census period 
amounted on the average to 66.6 per cent., the improved 
lands in 1910 had risen to only 54.4 per cent, of the total 
available for agricultural purposes. At a time when the 
nation's need of food is acute land is being held out of use 
for purely speculative purposes. 

Now, ethically and spiritually considered, the salient 
characteristic of the Exploiter, as of the Pioneer and the 
Land Farmer, is the crass individualism that distinguished 
the laissez faire period of our political economy. The 
good of that economy has been accomplished. It redis- 
covered the world, opened up new continents, vastly 
increased the world's aggregate wealth, produced rail- 
roads, telegraph and telephone systems, created new 
standards of living and new desires and wants that have 
become new necessities. But to-day we face the evils of 
that economy — the concentration of wealth and power in 
too few hands, the pressure of high prices upon the mass 
of the people, a too rapidly declining birth-rate, the 
spread of poverty in country and city alike. And it is 
these evils that the rural-school workers are striving to 

7 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

meet through the development of a new spirit, a new 
vision, in rural communities. 

The expression of this new vision — this new social con- 
science — on the economic side is cooperation; on the social 
side, the new neighbor lines s. It is this social conscience 
that has given the rural-school workers their new slogan, 
"We must hitch education up with life!" with which they 
are leading us into the period of the Husbandman — the 
man who is wedded to the soil, who is master of the 
science of agriculture, and who has the wisdom to see that 
his own best advantage and that of his household is 
ultimately wrapped up in the best advantage of the 
community and the nation. To the husbandman scien- 
tific agriculture is not scientific production only, but 
scientific business methods in the management of his farm 
and in the marketing of his crops. And the impulse 
toward economic cooperation, as toward the larger social 
life which is the new neighborliness, he is deriving prin- 
cipally from the men and women who are putting new life 
and new purpose into rural education. 

For in spite of all the thoughtless criticism that has 
been visited upon our public schools the workers in 
public education have not been heedless to the new de- 
mands of the times. Considering the baffling speed with 
v/hich the kaleidoscope of our modern life has rearranged 
the constituent parts of our social and economic organiza- 
tion, the schools have accomplished results in the adjust- 
ment of education to contemporary needs that call for un- 
stinted praise. This is not to say, of course, that the 
schools have done all that they could or should. No 
teacher or principal or superintendent with living and 
growing ideals would claim that. But the extended use 
of the school plant in our cities and the far-reaching ex- 
periments in health conservation and vocational training 
show that the city schools have not been idle. And in the 
country the progress in the development and reorganiza- 

8 



INTRODUCTION 

tion of public education promises to bring about a com- 
plete and most satisfactory revolution. The vitalizing of 
elementary instruction, the multiplication of consolidated 
schools, the extension of demonstration work into the 
every-day life of boys and girls, men and women, the 
drawing together of all the forces of constructive righteous- 
ness into community associations for the promotion of the 
general welfare, are inspiring signs that the workers in our 
rural schools have not been sleeping, that they have eyes 
for their momentous opportunities, and spirits resolute 
to bear the new responsibilities our changing generation 
has laid upon them. 

Already, in fact, the outlines of a reorganized rural- 
school system can be traced in the successful experi- 
ments that have been conducted in all comers of the 
United States. This book is an attempt to trace these 
outlines. The materials out of which it is built have 
been collected in the course of years from the experi- 
ence and through the courtesy of hundreds of rural- 
school workers. It is a record of achievements and 
the statement of a program for future work based upon 
these achievements. No attempt has been made to give 
a comprehensive review of all that has been done. 
There is no better proof of the vitality of the new 
rural -school movement than the fact that statistics 
of achievement which are correct to-day are incorrect, 
because incomplete, to-morrow. Typical instances alone 
have been cited. But no statement is made that is not 
based upon proved experience. It is oiu: hope that what 
we have set down here will serve as a bond of cooperation 
and helpfulness among the scattered thousands in the 
rural schools who are striving to relate their special local 
problems to the larger national movement that is receiving 
its impulse from the changing heart of the nation. 



II 

THE COMMUNITY SURVEY 

THE promise of our generation is in the growing faith 
that human life is sacred, and that the waste of Hfe 
or of the things from which it draws its sustenance is the 
great transgression. For the first time in history we are 
beginning to see that this earth is not a dismal accident, 
that himian life is not transitory. As science broadens 
our vision we begin to see that human life is the material 
God has given us to build a world with, that the civiliza- 
tion that each morning springs anew from the labor of our 
myriad hands is an integral part of the eternal process, 
that individually and collectively we who serve one 
another on farm and in factory, in the school and the 
varied activities of civic life, are co-workers with God in 
His creative purposes. Our business, we begin to under- 
stand, is not our individual salvation only, but the con- 
servation and wise use of all life, the development through 
mutual aid of its worth and strength and beauty. 

The opportunity of the rural school in the building of 
our civilization is summed up in the fact that it, more 
than any other one instrument, controls the food-supply 
of the nation — the foundation of our spiritual as well as 
of our physical life. From the point of view of the nation 
the work of the public school is to get a maximum product 
in efficient citizenship out of the community to which it is 
assigned, and the distinguishing mark of efficient citizen- 
ship in the rural community is skill in the production of 

lO 



THE COMMUNITY SURVEY 

food. From the point of view of the local community 
by which the individual school is maintained the work of 
the school is to organize the community life, to inspire it 
with national and social ideals, to increase its social and 
economic well-being, and to bring to the community the 
benefits of modern invention, the most recent achieve- 
ments in science and art. From the point of view of the 
children the work of the school is to conserve their health, 
to lead them into an understanding of civilization, and so 
to train their faculties that they may advance their individ- 
ual welfare through efficient work in the service of their 
homes, their community, and the nation. From which- 
ever of these points of view the rural school approaches its 
problem, it cannot succeed without a thorough knowledge 
of the local community, its resources and possibilities, its 
deficiencies and needs. The foundation of an effective 
school program must be a community survey. 

In the early days, when the work of the public school 
was confined to the three R's, when the actual education 
of the children, their real preparation for life, went on in 
the field, the threshing-room, the barn, the workshop, and 
the kitchen, all that was needed was an itinerant pedagogue, 
or a building where the children could be housed during 
certain hours of the day, with a teacher capable of giving 
them their letters and a modicum of geography and arith- 
metic. But all this has been changed by the industrial 
revolution that has dragged agriculture into the world 
economy and undermined the apprentice system. The 
isolated homes no longer give the children an adequate 
preparation for life. This task has been shifted to the 
school, and if the school is to meet the new needs of to-day 
even as well as the apprentice system met the old needs 
of an earlier generation it must understand the oppor- 
tunities and problems of each individual home and of all 
the homes together in their community relationships. 

Six years ago a young man was put in charge of a 

II 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

country district in which there were three rural schools 
of the traditional cheese-box type. The community was a 
typical farming community. In spite of rich soils the 
value of agricultural production was not increasing so 
rapidly as the market value of land. Land speculation 
was rife, and tenant-farming was growing. In spite of the 
wealth of a certain number of individuals farm life had 
fallen into disrepute. Year by year an increasing number 
of the rising generation abandoned their ancestral farms 
for city life, selling outright or leasing their lands for short 
terms to immigrants. The social and spiritual life of the 
community was listless and anemic. 

The problem that confronted this young man was pre- 
cisely the problem which, in one form or another, con- 
fronts rural-school workers everywhere in the nation to- 
day. If he was to hold the children on the land he must 
make rural life economically, socially, and spiritually 
attractive to them. To make rural life attractive he must 
increase the general wealth of the community, and in 
order to increase the community's general wealth he must 
train the farmers and their children in modern methods 
of agriculture and business management, and in the 
principles of cooperative marketing — through the school. 

How he solved his problem is recorded in a letter to a 
friend, which, because of its very informality, its straight- 
forward candor, its freedom from self -consciousness, has 
an illustrative value superior to that of the usually stilted 
official report. 

X — [he wrote] is in the trucking section of the Atlantic 
seaboard. Its people must market their crops in two weeks' 
time because they supply the market between South Carolina 
and New Jersey. If they are too early they cause an over- 
supply at the Carolina time; if too late, at the New Jersey time. 

Being in this fix, they feel they must force their crops and 
raise always from two to three crops a year. They, therefore, 
use immense quantities of commercial fertilizer. They regard 

12 



THE COMMUNITY SURVEY 

their soil as a place to transform commercial fertilizer into perishable 
produce, and not as a source in itself of food elements. Their 
close cultivation destroys humus in the soil, lowers its water- 
holding capacity, destroys helpful organic life, fosters insect 
pests, and, in the absence of crop rotation, poisons their land 
even against their single crop. 

Being "truck mad," they neglect general agricultural necessi- 
ties such as corn for their stock or hay for their horses and 
mules, or hogs to feed their families. They import from one- 
third to one-half of their corn and hay from the West, two- 
thirds of their hog meat and lard from the packers, get seven- 
eighths of their milk from cans, four-fifths of their butter and all 
their cheese from the creameries. 

Another thing: Our truckers are the greatest gamblers in the 
state. They depend too much on chance, the weather, an 
undersized measure, and the honesty . of commission men. 
Take the small trucker, Mr. B. L. D.: a fair year means that he 
has sold during the year $17,500 worth of produce. But — 

His fertilizer bill is $ 6,000 

His labor bill is 3j75o 

His packing bill is 3j45o 

His freight (railroad and water) bill is . . . 2,600 

His commission bill is ijToo 

Total $17,500 

What has he made? And in all probability he has been 
extravagant and gone in debt because handling so great a sum 
of money without proper bookkeeping has given him a false 
sense of financial security. There are dozens of his kind. 

This, in part, was this young man's diagnosis of the 
unhealthy social and economic life of the community as 
the result of which the schools were down at the heel, 
the churches were without inspiration and influence, the 
boys and girls were emigrating as fast as they could. On 
the basis of this partial economic survey he sketched a 
community program which in turn determined the pro- 
gram of his public school: 

13 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

So far, we of the school [he wrote] have attempted to interest 
our patrons in the following program: 

1. A larger crop of corn, insisting upon the selection of proper 
seed and the adoption of shallow cultivation, and discarding the 
practice of cutting fodder and tops. 

2. A larger hay crop by means of demonstration work. 

3. The substitution of seed-potatoes grown in the mountains 
of our own state for imported potatoes, thus cheapening the cost 
of transportation and getting a seed more free from disease. 

4. More green manure crops — after early potatoes, between 
corn rows, in strawberry patches and asparagus beds. 

5. Introduction of cow-peas and soja beans (rare as diamonds 
in former times). 

6. More hogs and better hogs. Securing at reasonable prices 
for our farmers pure-bred stock — Duroc Jersey, Berkshire, and 
Poland China. 

7. More sheep. Inducing farmers to grow a few for wool, etc. 
8 Securing earlier and more prolific varieties of cotton, so that 

this crop may mature earlier here, be more profitable and more 
available as a staple crop. 

9. Starting, or rather arousing, interest in a farmers' coopera- 
tive company that will sell the perishable produce in this com- 
munity directly to the large markets of the country instead of 
having the producers entirely at the mercy of the commission 
men whose honesty is the substance of things hoped for, the 
evidence of things not seen. 

This company is to control the grading and packing of the 
stuff, the placing of it in market, and the fertilizer question. 

10. The establishment of a thorough, practical county school 
of cooking, sewing, and economy for the girls. Why should 
not the girls use the favorite, long-treasured special recipes of 
mothers and grandmothers to make for profit wholesome, good, 
toothsome, appetizing, pure preserves for marketing in town 
to poor city people who now have to use canned stuff? Thus 
the girls will all know the special recipes of each family, know 
how to cook these things, and be the better home-makers, besides 
making money from their work. 

We want to keep the boys and girls in the country and make 
them better farmers and farmers' wives than are their parents. 

14 



THE COMMUNITY SURVEY 

We want to have the parents learn from the children. We want 
to make every boy and girl within the reach of our influence a 
contributing influence to the community and the state. 

But what have all these facts to do with the education of 
the children, which is, after all, the principal business of 
the public school? The answer is that without a com- 
munity program based upon the facts of community life 
it would have been impossible so to reorganize the school 
program as to give the children a preparation for life, the 
lack of which was causing them to abandon their country 
homes as quickly as possible. This school-worker realized 
that an effective school program can be developed to-day 
only as an integral part of the community program, and 
that the efhcient education of the children is contingent 
upon the organization and development of the entire com- 
munity life. When he began his work a few of the farmers 
in his district were enjoying gamblers' profits; a few more 
were managing to make both ends meet ; the majority were 
suffering the evil consequences of tradition-bound and 
imscientific agricultural and business methods. Because 
the majority were not prosperous there was no enthusiasm 
for a higher tax rate, no enthusiasm for better roads, no 
interest in spending money upon a school system that was 
not improving the conditions of life in the community. 
In order to win public support for the schools it was neces- 
sary to make the school serve the practical needs of the 
community ; and how could this be done without a first- 
hand knowledge of the social and economic condition of 
the community as a whole and of the individual homes 
within its boundaries ? 

Sir Horace Plunkett, who has done so much for the 
regeneration of rural life in Ireland, says in his recent book, 
The Rural Life Problem in the United States, that in the 
organization of country life it is necessary to go into the 
very heart of the people's every-day experience, This 

15 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

wisdom was the inspiration of the rural-school worker 
whose community survey we are considering. Having 
surveyed his community, he approached his task of reor- 
ganization through the e very-day experiences of his pupils. 

Harold Calhoun came to the school, was induced to join the 
corn club, developed an unsuspected hankering for farming, 
borrowed two acres of land from his father, planted corn and 
potatoes, and by following proper methods of cultivation not 
only made the best potato crop ever grown on that farm, but 
increased the yield of corn per acre by one-half over his father's 
yield. The father got interested and has gone into partnership 
with his son. It had been Harold's idea to go to town and get 
a job with the street-car company. He now has hopes of help- 
ing his father lift the mortgage, and says he will live and die a 
farmer. He has a sensible father. 

Patrick Fox wanted to enter the corn contest. Patrick's 
people were kind of down on the school, and Patrick senior 
considered himself the originator of the popular axiom that a 
"nigger and a mule can teach more agriculture than all the 
schools in the world," and was obnoxiously frank about it. So 
was the school. Our domestic-science teacher went to board 
at Patrick's home. She got a hearing for the work, and induced 
the father to give the boy one acre and the chance. Patrick 
won the first prize for the best ten ears and also for the best 
single ear. If he had been elected President his father couldn't 
be more proud! 

Mrs. Raleigh Blake, the minister's wife, did not like domestic 
science. Make housemaids and cooks of her daughters ! In fact, 
she and her girls and her girls' friends were belligerent in their 
outspoken opposition. We had to kidnap Mildred Blake off 
the public road and bring her to class one day. Mildred decided 
she would not study domestic science. The school decided 
otherwise! Finally her interest warmed; from motives of 
pride she entered for a prize at the school fair. Her blood was 
up. She won! To-day it would take more than all the king's 
men to drive her from the school. 

The energy required to adjust this school program to the 
community life sometimes found violent expression before 

i6 



THE COMMUNITY SURVEY 

it was effective. But it was effective! At the end of 
five years a fresh survey of the community showed these 
facts: 

The school has increased the production of com in this locality 
by one-half, not only as a separate crop, but as a follow crop. 
Alfalfa has been profitably grown for the first time. Early 
maturing varieties of cotton have been introduced. We have 
shown to the satisfaction of our farmers that home-grown seed- 
potatoes are equal to the best imported. Through the help 
of the boys methods of truck-farming have been revolutionized. 
The school is frequently asked to give advice in regard to crop 
rotation, fruit-tree pruning, selection of pure seeds, preparation 
of seed-beds, method of cultivation, selection of plant-foods, pure- 
bred swine and farm animals proper for this locality. 

The inoculation of hogs last year by a member of the school 
staff saved thousands of dollars to our farmers. 

A number of the farmers have united with the school in 
buying fertilizer. 

A cooperative farmers' exchange is now in operation. 

The boys of this community have been organized into com 
and trucking clubs, the girls into garden, canning, and poultry 
clubs. 

The school has become a social center, and the anemia 
of the community's spiritual life is finding a rapid and 
permanent cure. The people are happy and prosperous. 
The cityward emigration has been checked. 

Such work cannot be done without infinite tact, pa- 
tience, enthusiasm, and understanding — an understanding 
which cannot be acquired without the help of a community 
survey. But once the school has won public confidence 
by a single practical service, the community will follow its 
leadership in many things. The three scattered schools 
in this community have been brought together into a 
thoroughly modem consolidated school. The school is 
the center of a health campaign which, on the basis of 
a sanitary sruvey, is reorganizing health conditions 

17 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

throughout the community. It is helping to introduce 
labor-saving devices for the women in the homes as well 
as improved machinery for the use of the men in the 
fields. By a card system of home record it is giving 
school credit for work done by the children at home and 
certified by the parents. Its agricultural director, acting 
as a demonstration agent for the United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, organizes the boys into corn and 
potato and trucking clubs, follows them to their homes and 
continues their education by instructing and guiding them 
in their every-day work. The head of its department of 
domestic science takes the same course with the girls. 
She follows them into their homes and gardens and cooper- 
ates with them and their mothers in working out their 
problems of domestic economy and household manage- 
ment. Through extension and demonstration work the 
school has dovetailed the school program into the community 
program; it has made itself the dynamic center of the 
community's entire social and economic life. 

Now, what is remarkable about all this? First, its 
unusual common sense, its recognition of the fact that the 
children cannot be prepared for life in general, but must 
be prepared for the specific life of their particular en- 
vironment; second, its fearless recognition of the fact 
that economic prosperity is at the basis of any healthy 
civilization, that a vigorous spiritual life cannot flourish 
in a community where any considerable number of in- 
dividuals is starved and brutalized by physical destitution; 
and, third, its clear perception of the fact that the educa- 
tion of the children cannot be separated from the develop- 
ment of the community to which the children belong, 
just as the development of the community itself cannot 
be separated from the development of the state and 
nation. 

Judging from the progress rural-school workers in all 
sections of the country have made in "hitching education 



THE COMMUNITY SURVEY 

up with life," surveys similar to the one here recorded 
must be far from uncommon. But in spite of their ob- 
viously fundamental importance to the formulation of 
intelligent and effective rural-school programs, they have 
remained practically unknown to educational literature. 
No doubt the men and women who have made them are 
too busy with the every-day task of reorganizing their 
schools and putting the findings of their surveys into 
practice to take time to write, and too modest to realize 
the importance of sharing their experience with their 
fellow- workers. The survey upon which this discussion 
is based — in many respects the best we have been able to 
find — came into our possession as a by-product of friendly 
discussion and private correspondence. 

Among the best published examples of rural-community 
surveys made with specific reference to the formulation 
of commimity programs involving all phases of com- 
munity life are those issued during the past three years by 
the Department of Church and Coimtry Life of the 
Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church in 
the United States. These surveys are particularly valu- 
able because the problems of the rural church, upon which 
they are designed to throw light, have proved to be iden- 
tical with the problems confronting the rural school, and 
because the solution of the problems they define concerns 
the rural school even more directly than it does the country 
church. **The first condition which affects the country 
churches," says Dr. Warren H. Wilson, imder whose super- 
vision the surveys were made, **is the change in the way 
the people in the country get their livelihood. So that the 
country churches, for their own salvation, need to preach 
the gospel of better farming." This is unquestionably 
true, and the recognition of this fact heralds a new day of 
inspiring service for the country church. But it is ob- 
vious that in a nation where the school is a public institu- 
tion and the church is not, the work of improving agri- 
3 19 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

ciilture, of rehabilitating country life and charging it with 
new ideals of social and patriotic service must be done 
principally by the public school. The country church 
will do its most effective work by seconding the rural 
school in its brave effort to meet the momentous re- 
sponsibilities which the nation has laid upon it. 

In scope and method these surveys of the Department 
of Church and Country Life of the Presbyterian Church 
are models for the men and women who have consecrated 
their lives to the development of the rural community 
through the rural school. Although they are primarily 
concerned with the future of the country church as the 
spiritual leader of the country community, they invariably 
begin with a study of economic conditions — acreage, crops, 
land values, ownership, and tenantry — and proceed from 
these economic conditions to the educational and religious 
conditions, the recreational activities of the people, and 
the existing provisions for recreation and social enjoyment. 
The facts they reveal, when contrasted with the prevailing 
popular opinions and impressions about the typical rural 
community in America, make it clear that the rural com- 
munity is either a forgotten or a hitherto undiscovered 
country. 

The survey in Illinois, for example, covered 1,764 square 
miles. It considered the economic, sociological, educational^ 
and religious conditions of the communities in the given 
order. Among the noteworthy facts brought to Hght by 
the economic survey are such as these: 

The average area of each of the forty-four communities sur- 
veyed is fifty-four square miles. The farm land in central 
Illinois, in the ''corn belt" of the world, is for the most part a 
rich black loam. It is level prairie, except for a little way along 
the streams, where there is some rough land given over to forests 
and pastures. In only twelve of the communities is coal mined, 
either privately or by companies. The chief products of this 
region are com, oats, hay, and wheat, in the order given. The 

20 



THE COMMUNITY SURVEY 

average corn crop for last year was forty bushels per acre, or a 
little above the average for the state. The average size of farms 
is one hundred and forty-three acres, about the average for 
the entire United States. The smallest farms are of forty 
acres and the largest six hundred acres. In one-half the com- 
munities the tendency for the last ten years has been to enlarge 
the farms, while in about one-fifth of the communities the 
tendency seems to be to break up the farms into smaller ones. 
The very best of machinery is used on the farms, and the most 
modern, but in 20 per cent, of the communities it is poorly cared 
for. 

There is no more than the beginning of improved scientific 
farming in this region. . . . 

Sixty-three per cent, of the communities report a loss in 
fertility of the soil, all the way from 10 per cent, to "rapidly 
going down." Only 23 per cent, of the places report an increase 
in production. . . . 

The greatest change in this region is in the status of the men 
who run the farms. Only a few years ago this region was entirely 
farmed by the owners themselves, but within the past few years 
many of the owners have moved to the cities and towns or sold 
their farms to speculators and large land-owners, until now 
53 per cent, of the farms are run by tenants, and only 47 per cent, 
by the owners themselves. . . . 

In 58 per cent, of the communities there is absolutely noth- 
ing in the way of recreational life. . . . The places where 
people meet, in order of preference, are stores, restaurants, pool- 
rooms, saloons, elevators, and barber shops. . . . 

In these forty-four communities there are two hundred and 
twenty-five churches of twenty denominations, only seventy- 
seven of which have grown any in the past ten years, forty-five 
are at a standstill, fifty-six have lost in membership, while forty- 
seven have been abandoned in the last ten years. . . . 

The rural-school buildings are for the most part old and out of date, 
one-room, low ceilings, dingy and dark. 

These facts are typical of the facts brought to light by 
the rural surveys in Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, 
Tennessee, Maryland, and Missouri. There is sufficient 

21 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

evidence to show that they are typical of rural conditions 
throughout the United States. Everywhere the condi- 
tion of the country church, like that of the rural school, 
is found to be the counterpart and reflex of the economic 
and social conditions of the rural community ; the progress 
of the rural school, like the salvation of the country church, 
is inseparably involved in the economic and social rehabili- 
tation of rural-commimity life. 

But how can this rehabilitation be effected in com- 
munities where no one knows what the actual facts are? 

Before a school program is drafted, and where possible 
before the site is chosen, before the building or buildings 
are erected, before the school-plant is equipped, the school 
authorities should make a community survey to find out 
what the prevailing aspirations of the community are, 
to discover its economic and social resources and possi- 
bilities, its deficiencies and needs. Upon the facts brought 
to light by the survey, an economic and social program 
for the entire community should be based, and the school 
program must be developed as the central part of the 
community program. 

No rigid rules can be laid down as to the manner in 
which a survey should be made. There will be as many 
different sets of conditions as there are communities. 
But whether the leading activity of the community is 
truck-farming, or fruit-growing, or the raising of com or 
wheat or cattle or dairy products, the underlying purpose 
of the survey remains the same. Whatever the distinctive 
business of the community may be, it is the business of the 
teacher and the principal and the superintendent to under- 
stand that business and all the related factors that make 
for or against community happiness and prosperity. The 
extent of the general and school population, the sanitary 
conditions in the individual homes and the district, the 
prevailing methods of home and farm management, the 
facilities for intercommunication — ro^ds, telephones, mail 



the; COMMUNITY SURVEY 

service, and the like — the ownership of the land, the extent 
of tenant-farming ; in short, all the facts that have a vital 
bearing upon the community life are essential to the ad- 
justment of the work of the school to the economic and 
spiritual needs of the community. Without such knowl- 
edge it is impossible to "hitch education up with life." 
And this remains true, let us repeat, whether the school 
is situated in the trucking section, or the corn belt, or in the 
states that specialize in fruits, or dairying, or cattle, or 
cotton, or wheat ; it is as true of the economically prosper- 
ous as of the economically backward regions. 

The first object of a community survey is to familiarize 
the school-workers with the way in which the people in 
their communities get their living and the conditions under 
which they live. Without this knowledge it must remain 
impossible to build the school program out of the activities 
of the community — impossible to ''hitch education up with 
life." But of almost equal importance to the school is a 
survey of the recreations of the people and of the facilities 
for recreation. It is a common error to suppose that be- 
cause country folk live close to nature they do not need the 
provisions for systematic recreation that are universally 
recognized as essential to the physical and moral well-being 
of city people. A survey of fifty-three rural communities 
in Pennsylvania, made by the agents of the Presbyterian 
Board, makes it very clear that coimtry folk are not con- 
tent with the poetic companionship of birds and flowers, 
green pastures and rimning streams. Like all healthy and 
civilized human beings, they crave human companionship, 
especially in their hours of leisure. Neither is it true that 
when they abandon the bucolic pastimes traditionally 
associated with life in the open country they drift into 
evil ''city ways." But while this Pennsylvania survey 
shows that the pastimes of country people are generally of 
the most simple and wholesome nature, it also reveals the 
unfortunate fact that their leisure is an asset almost entirely 

23 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

neglected by both church and school. The following 
table is an interesting abstract of what the country people 
do with their leisure when they do anything at all: 



Baseball 29 per cent. 

Socials and picnics 18 

Pool and billiards 13 

Moving-picture shows 11 

Gymnasium athletics 5 

Concerts and lectures 3 

Skating 3 

Dancing 3 

Cards 3 

Basketball 3 

Football 3 

Tennis 3 

Bowling 2 

Golf I 



But for the most part the social gatherings of country 
people in rural Pennsylvania, as elsewhere, are entirely 
unorganized and casual, and take place principally at the 
post-office, the village or cross-roads stores, poolrooms, 
and the railroad stations. "Add together the proportion 
of meetings in such places, and the total is 78 per cent, of 
the whole." At these casual meetings the energies are 
released which if intelligently organized could be converted 
into a social force of the highest advantage to the com- 
munity. But, as the author of this survey says, "This is a 
field wholly uncultivated." The schools, like the churches, 
have not yet awakened to the fact that education is not a 
matter of childhood for childhood, but a matter of life for 
life, and that it is a cruel waste to attempt to cultivate the 
social and ethical instincts of the children during a few years 
and during a few hours of the day while these same instincts 
are permitted to run wild in the adult community — a 
cruel injustice to the children to pit their enthusiasms 

24 



THE COMMUNITY SURVEY 

and plastic inexperience against the dull cynicism of a 
socially iinaroused and torpid commiinity. It is directly 
in the interest of the children that the school must become 
the social center for the entire community; and this it 
cannot become unless the school-workers know how the 
people spend their time, what their recreational facilities 
are, and what things they would enjoy if rightly organized 
and provided with adequate facilities. Time and time 
again it has been found that the easiest approach to the 
reorganization of a community's educational and economic 
life is through the social instincts and desires of the people. 

Fortunately, the making of a community survey is 
neither costly nor excessively laborious. The surveys of 
the Presbyterian Board required the time sometimes of 
two, sometimes of only one investigator during a period 
of Httle more than two months. Possibly the most com- 
prehensive survey of a rural community yet made is that 
recently published by the Bureau of Research in Agri- 
culture of the Minnesota State University. This survey 
not only enters into all the essential facts of the present 
economic and social status of a typical rural county, but it 
reviews the history of the commtmity's social and indus- 
trial institutions — its schools, homes, railroads, grain- 
elevators, stores, newspapers. And yet it was completed in 
the three summer months of 19 12 by a single investigator. 

In view of the fundamental importance of such a survey 
to the constructive development of a school program 
designed to prepare children for efficient citizenship, 
would it not richly repay the commtinity to retain a teacher 
or supervising teacher or district or township or county 
superintendent during the summer months for the pur- 
pose of making one ? If a survey is a justifiable part of the 
cost of building roads and houses and fences, why is it 
not equally justifiable in the building of an efficient citizen- 
ship ? And what an education a community survey would 
be for the men and women who made it ! 



Ill 

THE HEALTH OF THE CHILDREN 

THE primary object of the community survey is to 
familiarize the school officials — trustees, principal, 
and teachers — with the community whose life it is the work 
of the school to organize, develop, and improve. But the 
foundation of the community life is in its children; the 
sacred material out of which the community of to-morrow 
must be built is principally in the plastic life of the 
oncoming generation. 

It is often said that the child is the nation's greatest 
asset. This may or may not be true. The child is raw 
material; he is only a possible asset, a potentiality in 
citizenship. He becomes an asset when he has three 
qualifications — health, trained ability, and a living desire ■ 
to serve the state. 

Here is the immediate task of the school, the duty and 
privilege of the teacher — to conserve the health of the 
child, to train him for productive work, to imbue him with 
the spirit of civic service. To take the child and by neg- 
lect, indifference, or abuse to impair his health, or, receiving 
him with his health impaired, to fail to make him whole, 
is sacrilege. To keep the child from infancy through 
adolescence and then to send him forth untrained for useful 
work is to despise the gift of God. To accept the task 
of public education from the state and not to imbue him 
with a living desire to serve the state is treason. For the 
state can justify the levy of taxes for public education 

26 



THE HEALTH OF THE CHILDREN 

only on the ground that it has ideals to serve, and that 
the intelligent preparation of the child for productive 
citizenship is essential to the attainment of those ideals. 

When the children come to the public school they come 
not as the property of the individual homes that send 
them — often under compulsion ; they come as consecrated 
material to be transformed into efficient citizens. And 
health, which includes a knowledge of the niles of public 
as well as of personal hygiene, is at the foundation of the 
possibility of efficient citizenship. 

Clearly, when the state compels children to assemble 
in the public school it commits a crime when it exposes 
them to the possibility of infection. In the days when 
we were ignorant of the communicable nature of bacterial 
disease there may have been some excuse for carelessness 
in this matter. There is no excuse to-day. Happily, 
this truism is receiving general recognition by the common 
sense of the people. 

Medical inspection was introduced into the public 
schools to protect the children and the community from 
the menace of epidemics. In the beginning, when children 
were discovered with communicable diseases they were 
merely sent home and quarantined. There was originally 
no intention of invading the home's authority over the 
physical welfare of the children. But the inspection for 
communicable diseases quickly revealed the fact that the 
homes were neglecting the care of the children's bodies — 
not through malice or indifference, but through ignorance. 
An astonishing number of children were found to have bad 
teeth, imperfect eyesight, adenoids, spinal curvature, and 
other defects, that not only interfered with their educa- 
tional progress, but, uncorrected, were certain to impair 
their civic efficiency throughout their days. Medical 
inspection began to open the eyes of the school to its 
responsibility for the backwardness of many of the 
children in school and for their later careers as criminals, 

27 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

bums, or vagrants. As a result medical inspection is 
everywhere being extended to cover physical defects. 
Sometimes the school limits its initiative to examining the 
children and notifying the parents of the existence of 
defects. Sometimes the school exercises compulsion by 
excluding the child until the defect or defects have been 
corrected. And in some communities the school super- 
vises the correction of the defects, either through the 
family physician or through special school clinics pro- 
vided by the community. More and more the school is 
assuming large jurisdiction over the health of the children, 
which until a few years ago was, like the labor of children 
and their discipline — even when this extended to cruelty — 
considered the exclusive prerogative of the parents. In- 
creasingly the state is placing the school and its coworker, 
the children's court, in loco parentis. 

The point of view toward medical inspection which is 
rapidly coming to prevail has recently been expressed 
by Dr. F. B. Dresslar in a bulletin published by the 
United States Bureau of Education. Dr. Dresslar justi- 
fies public action in conserving the health of school-children 
on broad grounds of public policy. Has not the com- 
munity, he asks, as much right to demand good health in 
its citizens and future citizens as it has to demand literacy? 

And nowhere is the gospel of physical vigor, the sanctity 
of personal purity, and the godliness of right living more 
needed than in the rural school, because, owing to the 
peculiar handicaps in the way of a health program in the 
scattered country communities, the health of the country 
children has not received so much attention as the health 
of city children. Dr. L. J. Cooke, gymnasium director 
in the University of Minnesota, has recently published the 
results of a protracted investigation showing that the 
physique of city boys who enter that university is better 
than that of boys from the farms. The physical defects 
that especially afflict country boys are flabby muscles, 

28 



THE HEALTH OF THE CHILDREN 

hump shoulders, curved spines, low right shotdders, mus- 
cular weakness of heart action, small chest expansion, and 
small lung capacity. 

In the boys from the farm [he says] the muscles of the arms 
and shoulders are usually well developed, while nearly every 
other part of the physical organism falls below the general 
average. The city youth, who usually has had more or less 
physical training, possesses a much better physique. 

The Rev. Claire S. Adams, in a rural survey made in 
Illinois for the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions, 
points out that there is nothing in good air and hard work 
that will fortify a man or woman against a continued 
neglect of the elemental principles of health. 

Country people [he says] are constantly suffering from sick- 
ness, small and great, against which they feel themselves help- 
less. The spirit of rebellion against sickness is general in cities 
and towns. People there expect to be well. But in the country 
they expect to be sick. On the farm the mother of the house is 
the health department. She has to know for the farm group all 
that the departments of health, police, and schools in the cities 
need to know about sanitation. The lack of this knowledge 
among farm women is the cause of the retarded sanitary develop- 
ment of the country. The cities, for all their great difficulties, 
are surpassing the country in their sanitary reform. The death 
rate is controlled in the city. In the country it is still increasing. 
The time will come, if present processes are permitted to go on, 
when people will flee to the city for good health in fear of the 
unrestrained diseases of the country. That time will not come 
if the farm mother can be taught sanitation, if the country 
children can be taught the elemental principles and practices of 
personal and public hygiene. 

What a challenge these facts throw to the workers in 
otir rural schools! For everywhere in our most enlight- 
ened communities the center of the new health movement 

29 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

— as contrasted with the old anti-disease movement — has 
come to be the public school. 

The technique of medical inspection has made immense 
strides in the past five or six years, especially in our 
metropolitan centers, and this technique is applicable, in 
the main, to all communities, whether urban or rural. 

What are the practical steps in medical inspection as 
they present themselves to the rural school ; what is their 
relative importance from the point of view of health and 
educational progress; and what is the simplest and most 
effective way in which these steps can be taken? 

The most immediate step is the detection and exclusion 
of children with infectious and communicable diseases. 
To compel the children to gather in the school-building 
and not to protect them and the community from infec- 
tion is nothing short of a crime. Clearly, however, the 
problem of detecting the presence of a contagious disease 
is beyond the ability of any one but a skilled physician. 
At the outset, therefore, the school authorities are con- 
fronted by the necessit}?" of providing a medical officer 
whose duty it must be to visit the schools at short and 
regular intervals and to examine all children who have 
colds, coughs, and any other symptoms of indisposition. 

There is no doubt [says Dr. Walter S. Cornell, Director of 
Medical Inspection of Public Schools in Philadelphia, in his 
book Health and Medical Inspection of School Children] that 
in the ideal system the medical inspector visits his school daily 
at approximately the same hour. A rigid system and a daily 
call for patients waken the teachers to their responsibility, and 
this daily search by the teachers for causes of physical defect, 
skin-disease, or sore throat soon increases their power of observa- 
tion to a wonderful degree. Any working plan in a large city 
not entailing these daily visits can be justified only on the 
ground of economy. 

If this is the best system in the city, why should the 
country children and their homes not enjoy an equally 

30 



THE HEALTH OF THE CHILDREN 

thorough protection ? The cost of preventing the develop- 
ment and spread of disease, however high, is always 
cheaper in the end than indifference or neglect. 

But there are considerations that may justify a less 
rigid system in suburban, village, and country districts. 

Realizing [Dr. Cornell goes on] that the indorsement of in- 
frequent visits may do harm to the cause of medical inspection 
by reason of misunderstanding, I nevertheless feel it necessary to 
state in justice to the public treasury that daily visits to very 
small suburban (village and country) schools are a non-justifiable 
expense. It is true that a case of scarlet fever or some minor 
contagious disease may develop in one day as well as another, 
but experience has shown that such cases are rare in these 
schools, and that a daily incidental visit by the medical inspector 
is usually a fruitless errand. 

Visits at intervals of three or four days are in these cases 
sufficient. 

Any system of medical inspection which provides for the visit- 
ing of large city schools [and is this not equally true of large 
country schools?] less frequently than on alternate days should 
be condemned. 

As applied to the country school this authoritative de- 
claration of principle will undoubtedly seem startling, 
almost revolutionary. But the questions that the rural- 
school worker — whether teacher, principal, superintendent, 
or trustee — ^must always ask are these: Have not the 
rural-school children, have not the country communities 
as much right as the cities to the best protection from 
communicable disease that modem science can give? 
Has not the discrimination against the health of the rural 
child and the country community gone on long enough? 

Protection against communicable disease is undoubt- 
edly the first necessity, but it is not more imperative, nor 
in the long rim more profitable, than protection against the 
non-communicable physical defects that make the lives 
pf th$ children miserable, retard their educational progress, 

3J 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

and permanently undermine their physical stamina. A 
man's body is the tool with which he works, and when that 
tool is permitted to deteriorate, to rust or chip, to get out 
of order generally, he becomes a candidate for the human 
scrap-heap. Thousands of our vagrants, delinquents, 
and criminals have gone to the bad simply because their 
bodies were neglected in youth. To scatter physically or 
mentally defective children over the country is a greater 
evil than selling or sowing defective seed. 

How can the work of keeping the children in sound 
physical condition be done with greatest efficiency and the 
least expenditure of brain, muscle, and money? 

Says Dr. Cornell: 

Taking the five primary physical defects — ^poor vision, nose 
and throat obstruction, deafness, decayed teeth, and poor 
nutrition — it seems to me that the examination of each child 
every two years is sufficient, provided the school record of defective 
children is gone over each September and an endeavor made to secure 
the treatment previously recommended if this has not previously 
been obtained. In this way the known defectives receive an 
annual examination. 

An experienced examiner will require four or five minutes for 
each child. It is the custom in our large cities for the medical 
inspector to visit each school on his list for the examination of 
miscellaneous cases (referred to him by the teacher), and at the 
last school visited to make a systematic examination of from 
twenty to thirty children. By this method, if the proper 
number of school-children be assigned to his care, each child is 
systematically examined and the results recorded on his regis- 
tration card every two years. 

No system looking to the systematic examination of more than 
thirty children in one day is feasible. The eye-strain attendant 
on vision-testing, the amount of vitiated air inhaled during throat 
examinations, and the general activity required impose a limit on 
the examiner at this point. 

The details of medical inspection must be left to the 
medical officer, ^whether he is employed directly by the 

32 



THE HEALTH OF THE CHILDREN 

school authorities or by the health authorities cooperating 
with the school. It is, however, the business of the school 
authorities to see that the medical examinations are made 
and that the discovered defects are corrected. 

Why does this responsibility rest upon the school au- 
thorities? First, because good health is essential to effi- 
cient citizenship, and the school is directly responsible 
to the home and the nation for the efficiency of our future 
citizens. But there is another and more immediately 
pressing reason. Physical defects retard the educational 
progress of the children, and this not only means that the 
children must spend an undue amount of time in each 
grade — entailing a double or treble cost per child upon the 
public treasury — but also that they leave school without 
the minimum educational equipment that is essential to 
their future efficiency. 

Poor vision means eye strain, which means headaches 
and general nervous derangement. A child that cannot 
see well cannot be a good pupil. 

Nose and throat obstruction, whether because of 
adenoids or other abnormality, means mouth-breathing, 
sleeplessness, mental sluggishness, unhappiness, and sub- 
normal vitality. A child that cannot breathe well cannot 
be a good pupil. 

Deafness means lack of attention and inability to re- 
ceive instruction. Moreover, deafness and earache are 
usually symptoms of serious disorders which, undiscovered 
and uncorrected, may mean early death. A child that 
cannot hear well cannot be a good pupil. 

Decayed or defective teeth mean constant suffering, 
poor mastication, digestive derangements, impaired health. 
Decayed teeth not only poison the breath of the' children, 
they infect all the food that passes into their stomachs. 
A child whose system is continually poisoned at the 
source of nutrition by decaying teeth cannot be a good 
pupil. 

33 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

Poor nutrition is at once the result and a contributing 
cause of all other physical defects. Bad eyes, bad ears, 
bad teeth, obstructed breathing-passages all interfere with 
the normal processes of digestion. At the same time an 
improperly nourished child is like an underfed engine 
or one whose fire-box is full of clinkers. His stomach is not 
turning into his blood and body the materials needed for 
the growth and repair of tissues, and this means that all 
the organs are underfed. Besides, an undernourished 
child lacks resistance to disease and is the readiest prey 
to tuberculosis, pneumonia, and the like. Malnutrition, 
whether from insufficient food or improper food, means 
general debility, listlessness, inability to do the work of 
the school. A child with poor nutrition cannot be a good 
pupil. 

From the" point of view of educational progress, there- 
fore, as well as from the point of view of the nation with 
its interest in physical efficiency, the school authorities 
must see to it that these defects are discovered and cor- 
rected. This task requires a maximum of patience and 
tact. It cannot be accomplished unless the school has 
the full confidence of the community and has won the 
interested and cordial cooperation of the parents. Par- 
ents are likely at the outset to resent being told that the 
physical condition of their children is not all that it 
should be; unless the educational authorities are careful 
and considerate, the examination of the children for 
physical defects may result in discord and bad feeling. 
On the other hand, the examination of the children and 
the notification of the parents when defects are dis- 
covered, if tactfully done, almost invariably proves a 
strong bond of sympathy and cooperation. When a 
defect is discovered a written notice should be sent to the 
parents stating the specific nature of the defect and urging 
a consultation with the family doctor. A general notice 
that does not name the specific defect or defects is pretty 

34 



THE HEALTH OF THE CHILDREN 

certain to be disregarded. And if the defect remains 
uncorrected even after the attention of the parents has 
been specifically called to it, a representative of the school 
should visit the home and explain to the parents the 
importance of correction. When reasoning and persua- 
sion fail, the child should be excluded as rigorously as in 
the case of a contagious or communicable disease. 

The defects enumerated above are the ones that will 
require the most active attention from the school authori- 
ties. But hardly less common are the orthopedic defects — 
fiat foot, bow-leg, and the like — and the nervous derange- 
ments that may be due to some organic abnormality, or to 
the physical changes that play so large and important a 
part in the lives of growing children. The nervous de- 
rangements attendant upon the development of the sex 
organs need the most scrupulous attention. The instruc- 
tion of the boys and girls in the simple and fundamental 
facts of sex and sex hygiene is imperative. Of course, there 
is always danger in intrusting this task to inexperienced 
or immature doctors or teachers; harm may result from 
the morbid exaggeration of facts that shoxild be handled in 
a wholesome-minded, direct, and simply scientific fashion. 
But what man or woman whose education in the funda- 
mental facts of sex and sex hygiene was neglected in youth 
will not agree that the omission of proper instruction is 
fraught with tragedy? Where there is any question as to 
the ability of the teacher or principal to impart the neces- 
sary minimum of instruction either through courses in 
elementary biology or through individual conferences 
with the pupils, or both, or where there is any reason to 
believe that the community is not prepared for the intro- 
duction of such instruction into the course of study, the 
desired results will be obtained by securing the services 
of a physician of high standing to address a series of 
parents' meetings and then leaving the matter of sex 
instruction to the parents. 
4 35 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

Fortunately for the future health and vigor of the race, 
prudishness has had its day; sanity and healthy-minded- 
ness are everywhere beginning to prevail. And the 
progress in the application of scientific knowledge that is 
protecting increasing numbers of children from nervous 
disorders and sex derangements is reaching out a hand 
of wisdom and kindness to the mentally abnormal, defec- 
tive, and atypical children. 

How many thousands have not suffered from our care- 
less and heartless grouping of children into the totally 
inadequate categories of good and bad, bright and dull! 
In the vast majority of the cases the good child and good 
pupil is merely the normal and healthy child; the bad 
child and bad pupil is merely the child harassed by some 
physical or mental defect or abnormality. 

The entire subject of the mentally atypical, abnormal, 
or defective child carries the school authorities into delicate 
ground. The parents who resent having their attention 
called to their children's defective eyes, ears, teeth, rebel 
against the marking of their children as mentally abnormal. 
And yet the failure on the part of the school to segregate 
such children, to give them special physical and mental 
care, means sorrow to the children, their degeneracy, and 
the decadence of the race. Furthermore, the presence 
in the school of a mentally abnormal child whose abnor- 
mality is undetected and for whom no special educational 
provision is made interferes with the normal progress of 
all the children. We punish the children and ourselves 
when we fail to heed the fact that abnormal or defective 
brains are no more monstrous, no more to be ashamed of 
than abnormal or defective eyes, or ears, or teeth. 

Nowhere is prejudice and ignorance fraught with 
greater menace to the child, the school, and the commu- 
nity than in this matter of the examination and care of 
children who are mentally deficient. It is interesting, 
therefore, to have so great an authority as Dr. Cornell 

36 



THE HEALTH OF THE CHILDREN 

call attention to the fact that "Hawthorne, Leigh Hunt, 
Sir Isaac Newton, Darwin, Froebel, Linnaeus, Clive, and 
Wellington were reputed to be dull boys in school." And 
he goes on to state his opinion that the most successful 
men are seldom the brightest boys in school. 

Dullness in itself is not necessarily a proof of mental 
deficiency, just as precocity is not necessarily a sign of 
genius ; but, while not a proof of mental deficiency, diillness 
is an index pointing either to m.ental deficiency, to im- 
proper physical condition, or to something wrong in the 
children's school or home environment. In any case, 
it is a signal to warn the teacher that the child requires 
special attention. In most cases dull children, like feeble- 
minded children, require medical attention and special 
instruction, if not institutional care, but there are cases 
in which the correction of the child's school or home 
environment is all that is needed. Dr. Cornell cites the 
case of a boy who had remained in the fifth grade through 
five half-year terms under five different teachers, and 
who had come to be known among the teachers by the 
name of ''Shiftless." When, however, he was promoted 
to the sixth grade at a venture his mind seemed to waken, 
he showed remarkable improvement, and at the end of 
forty days he ranked among the best scholars, with a rating 
of excellent in spelling, good in arithmetic, language, and 
history, and fair in geography and physiology. Such 
cases are not infrequent, and suggest the importance of 
periodic mental tests with a view to determining whether 
the so-called dull children are properly graded or whether 
the work which is being assigned them is the work best 
adapted to call out their latent powers. Such tests 
adapted to the use of the teacher without special training 
in psychiatrics has been devised by Professor Binet, of the 
University of Paris, France, and can be had upon appli- 
cation to almost any state department of education or to 
the Bureau of Education in Washington. 

37 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

Once the health of the children has been accepted by 
the rural school as a normal part of its social and educa- 
tional responsibility, medical inspection loses its mystery 
and most of its difficulties. How shall the country chil- 
dren be given equal protection with the children in the 
most advanced municipalities ? 

Common sense offers the simplest and best solution. 
Let the country school turn to the country doctor for his 
service and cooperation. The country doctor is one of the 
noblest figures in our national life; he is distinguished 
above most men for his unselfish interest in the health of 
his neighbors and for his readiness to make large personal 
sacrifice in behalf of the public welfare. The country dis- 
tricts that cannot command the public-spirited coopera- 
tion of an able country doctor will be found in the very 
small minority. 

Undoubtedly, however, the experience of the cities will 
hold with equal force in the country ; it is not safe to abuse 
the generosity of the doctor any more than it is safe to 
abuse the generosity of the merchant, or the civil engineer, 
or the banker, or the farmer. It will not do to forget 
that the doctor and his family need money to live on as 
much as other people. For this reason it is well to pro- 
vide for the fair compensation of the country doctor who 
is willing to serve as medical inspector for the schools of 
the district. 

In answer to the inquiry as to the proper salary for a 
medical inspector in the country who gives only a part 
of his time to the work. Dr. Cornell suggests that the 
inspector should be paid for the hours actually spent in 
the schools and for the time consumed in going from one 
school to another. If the doctor lives in a reasonable loca- 
tion, but all the schools are distant from his residence, he 
should be given credit for an extra half-hour for each 
school. If the schools are widely separated and the 
transportation facilities are bad the inspector should 

33 



THE HEALTH OF THE CHILDREN 

receive one hundred dollars a year for the keep of a 
conveyance, in which case the credit for a half-hour to 
and between schools should be omitted. 

By way of illustrating the basis of remuneration Dr. 
Cornell takes an exceptionally large country district with 
ten schools and two thousand children ; smaller districts 
will find no difficulty, however, in reducing his figures to 
scale. 



Suppose [he says, by way of example] the borough of North- 
ampton institutes medical inspection. There are two thousand 
children in ten different schools, and the total distance between 
schools is twelve miles. The population is scattered, and there- 
fore contagious diseases, except long-apart epidemics of measles 
and chicken-pox, practically do not exist. Under such condi- 
tions the inspector can examine all the children in twelve thou- 
sand minutes (two hundred hours), inspect all their vaccination 
marks in ten hours or less, and make a sanitary inspection of 
each of the ten buildings three times a year, allowing thirty 
minutes to each inspection, making fifteen hours more. The 
children sent to him on each visit by the teachers would not 
average more than three children, each of whom would require 
five additional minutes. And if by the official regulation he 
visits each school twice a week for forty weeks, this would add 
two hundred hours more to his work. 

All this would total four hundred and twenty-five hours. 
With ten months to do this work (except for the stated short 
visits already mentioned), he would thus average about forty 
hours a month, each month consisting of twenty school-days. 
Under such conditions a physician could almost arrange his own 
time to make his systematic examinations, even allowing that 
an hour will be consumed in going to and between schools. 
Two dollars per hour would therefore be good compensation, 
and would equal $850 for the year, to which should be added 
credit for a half-hour's time on each working-day (probably 
about a hundred and fifty in the year), equaling $75, or if the 
inspector must use a conveyance, $100. This would make a 
total salary of $950. 

39 



THE WOEK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

In cities $1,200 net a year is the standard allowance for 
part-time work for each medical inspector. 

Is this too much to pay for the protection of the children 
and the entire community against the menace of epidemics 
and for the discovery and correction of the defects of 
teeth, eyes, ears, nose, throat, spine, etc., which hinder the 
children's school progress and when uncorrected impair 
their physical efficiency all their days ? Let parents in the 
rural districts consider the cost of disease and epidemics 
among their cattle, trees, and grains, to say nothing of 
unchecked erosion in their fields, improper cultivation, and 
the like, and they will hardly hesitate to demand from the 
school authorities the expenditure of a few hundred dollars 
to protect their children and their homes ! 

Of course, the difficulty of the semi-volunteer, part- 
time service here described is that even the best of doctors 
is likely to consider a surgical operation or a visit to a 
patient more important, because usually more remunera- 
tive, than the same time spent in school. This tempts 
him to slight his public work and so reduces his efficiency 
as a medical inspector of school-children. The frequency 
with which this difficulty arises has developed a tendency 
in the cities to employ a limited number of physicians for 
their full time and to underpin their work with the work 
of trained nurses who do nothing but look after school- 
children at school and in their homes. Already the 
county authorities in most states pay a county health 
officer to take care of those who have become criminals 
or paupers, or to fight disease after it has become epidemic. 
Why should not these health officers be employed, like 
teachers and principals, for their full time to prevent 
disease, to correct defects, and to promote individual, 
domestic, and community hygiene ? Some day our grow- 
ing perception of the dollar-and-cent value of having 
our children properly cared for and properly instructed 
will lead to the development of a health service that 

40 



THE HEALTH OF THE CHILDREN 

will be coordinate with our present educational ser- 
vice. 

But we cannot afford to wait for an ideal arrangement. 
We must use the facilities now at hand. And if the rural- 
school authorities do the best they can immediately, the 
future will undoubtedly take good care of itself. 



IV 

SCHOOL GOVERNMENT AND THE COURSE OP STUDY 

THE school program that omits to take the actual 
child as it finds him and to provide for a careful 
survey of his physical condition, with the purpose of hav- 
ing any defects corrected or diseases cured and promoting 
his normal physical development, fails to lay the solid 
foundation upon which alone an efficient citizenship can 
be built. To say to the children through word of mouth 
or through a text-book that they should keep themselves 
healthy and then to fail to make it possible for them to 
follow the advice is manifestly absurd. To say to a boy 
"You must breathe through your nose!" when an adenoid 
growth, about which he and his parents know nothing, 
makes it impossible for him to obey is nearer to the senile 
folly of blind custom than to the wisdom of living experi- 
ence. To say to him **Sit up straight and stop leaning 
over your desk!" when he has a spinal curvature is a 
tragic farce. To tell the children that tooth-brushes will 
keep their teeth clean and sound when, unknown to them- 
selves or their parents, ninety in a hundred of them already 
have decayed teeth that need immediate dental treatment 
is cruel mockery. To say to the children that it will injure 
their eyes to read facing the light when twenty in a hundred 
of them already have defective vision demanding glasses 
or medical care is to be guilty of inexcusable neglect. 
Contrary to the prevailing superstition, the cost of medical 
inspection, when provided by the public-school or health 

42 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT AND STUDY 

authorities acting in cooperation, is very small. But 
even if it were high it would be folly not to provide 
it. And the proved fact of its low cost leaves the rural 
community without its one seemingly valid excuse for 
delay. If one-half the money that is put into hospitals, 
sanitariums, and asylums for the cure or detention of 
those who through neglect have become dangerously sick 
or mentally incapacitated were devoted to the prevention 
of disease and defectiveness in school-children, our national 
efficiency would be immeasurably increased. 

Following the survey of the health of the children 
there should come a survey of their mental powers, 
abilities, and experiences to discover in what particulars 
they are strong or weak and in what direction each of 
them individually needs special development. The 
usual examination based on memory is entirely indequate. 
An intelligent grouping of the children requires a careful 
study of their powers of initiative, their powers of memory, 
their imaginations, their ability to reason, their control 
of their motor activities. Some children are "long" on 
imagination and "short" on memory. Some reason 
slowly, some quickly. Some have a "turn" for making 
things with their hands; their fingers work deftly and 
accurately — they need guidance and encouragement. 
Some are unable to do things readily with their hands; 
their fingers and bodies work awkwardly- — they need pa- 
tient and intelligent teaching. Some children express 
themselves best through music, some through the spoken 
word, some through writing, some through drawing, some 
through making things. A rigid and stereotyped . pro- 
gram will injure more latent abilities than it can 
mend. 

A little five-year-old boy while roaming around at 
lunch-time saw a ground-squirrel. Instantly he was all 
attention. Watching the little wild thing, he forgot school 
and recess and failed to hear the bell. When he came to 

43 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

himself he ran to the school, only to find that the door was 
shut and that he was ten minutes late. 

"Why didn't you come when the bell rang?" the teacher 
asked. 

*'I didn't hear it," he said. 

"What were you doing?" 

"I was watching a ground-squirrel." 

His ears were soundly boxed, and he was sent to his 
desk in tears and humiliation and was kept in after school. 

A beautiful opportunity and a wicked betrayal of it ! 

A nine-year-old boy came into the schoolroom ten 
minutes late. 

"Why are you late, Sammie?" 

"I saw a water-dog in the branch as I came along and 
I wanted to catch him and bring him with me!" 

"Did you catch him?" 

"Yes, ma'am," he replied with shining eyes, "and here 
he is!" 

In a moment the school was grouped around Sammie, 
and all the children were watching the water-dog. The 
program was changed that day, as it often was in that 
school. But there were some interesting things well said 
and well written; there were some related facts brought 
out. A beautiful opportunity and a quick appreciation 
of it. 

What children need is expression; what they too often 
get is suppression, repression, oppression. 

A careful survey is needed of the children's social 
attitude. Close observation will show that some children 
are egotistic and anti-social ; that others merely lack good 
judgment and social perspective. All of them need care- 
ful guidance ; their eyes need to be opened to the position 
of the individual in a democratic community. 

Mere guesswork will not supply the basis for an intelli- 
gent school program. All teachers make some kind of 

44 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT AND STUDY 

survey of the children's mental and physical faculties 
even if it amounts to nothing more than seeing that some 
children are deaf, some pale, some "bad," and some 
"good." A few observe closely and make an honest effort 
to know each child well. And a few — a very few as yet — 
do not rest until they understand each child and his 
individual needs thoroughly — the state of his health, of 
his mental powers, his motor activities, his outlook upon 
the world of men and things about him. Has not the 
time come when what is true of this small minority should 
be true of all teachers whatsoever ? 

The spirit of the commimity survey and the health 
survey of the children is happily being adopted by the 
best schools ever3n^here as the controlling spirit in the 
government of the school and the discipline of the chil- 
dren. The education of the children cannot be effective 
unless it includes an adjustment between them and their 
community environment. Either the school program 
must be modified to suit the actual life of the community, 
or the life of the community, where that is backward, 
must be modified in such a way as to enable the children 
to put their school training into effective practice. Every- 
where the ablest teachers are developing the school pro- 
gram and the community program as one. 

Oddly enough, however, the adjustment of the school 
program to the community life has made least progress 
in the field of government where the adjustment would 
seem to be easiest and most natural. All of our political 
units, from the nation at large to the states, the counties, 
and districts, are under a democratic form of government, 
whereas the government of the public school remains for 
the most part autocratic and arbitrary. 

According to the traditional practice, the school au- 
thorities make certain rules and the principal and teachers 
add certain others. Sometimes the rules are good and 
wholesome in themselves; often they are harsh and ili- 

45 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

advised. In either case, however, the children have no 
part in them but to obey. Their point of view is not 
considered, the wisdom and fairness of the rules are not 
discussed with them. Under these fixed and arbitrary 
methods is it to be expected that the children will learn 
to respect law and order? Is it to be expected that they 
will learn the reasonableness and the necessity for law 
unless they have had training in the making of law and 
have learned the value of law from their own experience? 
Is taking law on faith good preparation for citizenship in a 
democracy ? 

What is disorder or lawlessness in the accepted school- 
room sense? Any violation of the rules, however arbi- 
trary and unreasonable the rules may be. One teacher 
forbids all talking; to talk or whisper during school-hours 
is, accordingly, to disobey the law. A child, utterly 
weary of sitting in a stuffy room, and not infrequently 
suffering because he doesn't fit his desk, slips down in his 
chair and sticks his feet out into the aisle ; if this is against 
the rules, he has disobeyed the law. Another teacher 
lays down the rule that no child shall leave the room more 
than once during the session and that he will be kept 
after school for the second "offense." Accordingly the 
children refrain from going out a second time — often a 
crime against their health and morals — or they go and 
take their punishment. Do such rules foster respect for 
law? 

The imposition of arbitrary authority breeds lawless- 
ness. How commonly the children make a hero of the 
boy who does some outrageous or daredevil thing in 
violation of the rules! They respect the miscreant and 
take joy in seeing the authorities baffled. What is the 
reason for this rebelHous attitude? Why is the "tell- 
tale" despised? It is because our entire democratic 
civilization is founded in a spirit of revolt against the 
arbitrary Old World laws like those of the royal forest, 

46 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT AND STUDY 

that saved a rabbit though a child starved, that held a 
peasant's life cheaper than a deer's, and that imposed 
taxation without representation. And yet the tradition 
of autocratic authority versus the common man is by no 
means dead, and has survived especially in the government 
of our schools. And the children instinctively feel that 
they are obeying the best spirit of their fathers in making 
common cause against the oppressor. 

But this rebellious spirit does not prevail in children's 
clubs, in their athletic teams, or in the associations formed 
and governed by themselves. The honor system is a 
democratic system; public opinion controls, for the 
opinions of all in regard to the law have been consulted 
and the rules have been made by those who both obey 
and enforce obedience. A school in which the children 
share in making the laws is pretty certain to be a school 
in which good order exists, in which honor prevails, in 
which the best progress is made. 

Experience has shown that when the children are con- 
sulted in making the rules for the orderly government 
of the school they are very quick to grasp the essentials 
of good order, and show keen discrimination in distinguish- 
ing between the less and the weightier matters that go to 
make up a disciplinary program. Being very sensitive 
to injustice, they are very much alive to what is right. 
A little round table at the opening of the school and from 
time to time throughout the year will win their instant 
attention and interest. They will discuss searchingly and 
skilfiilly the reasons for this law or rule; the reasons why 
this or that rule should have certain exceptions; the 
proper corrective for this or that violation. They take 
pride in being permitted to enact the laws for their own 
government, and they are rarely willing to see their own 
handiwork dishonored by any of their own number. 

Obviously, the first step in the creation of a disciplinary 
program is to have the children imbued with the idea 

47 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

that the school was built for them and is maintained for 
them; that it is their duty and privilege to take care of 
and cherish this temple of childhood built and maintained 
for them at the expense of the community and the state. 
If tactfully guided and rightfully inspired, they will keep 
good order on the grounds and in the rooms; they will 
take care of the walls and desks, keep the closets in good 
shape and prevent defacements. Under a democratic 
system of government they will conduct themselves with 
a keen sense of social responsibility and do the numberless 
little necessary things that the most argus-eyed teacher 
cannot successfully manage in the cat-and-mouse atmos- 
phere of school autocracy. 

When the children help to make and enforce their own 
laws what will happen to their sense of civic ethics and 
their growth in efficient citizenship? When they have in 
their turn become a community of lawmakers, what will 
be the effect of self-government in school upon their 
respect for law, its reasonableness and necessity? Will 
it not then be natural for them to enter into the spirit of 
the law, to see that the laws entered upon the statutes are 
fair and just, and to regard a violator of the law with in- 
dignation? Is not an understanding of the spirit of the 
law essential to the healthy continuance of our democracy? 
And when shall the children acquire this understanding 
if not in the public schools where the twenty million 
children of to-day are being shaped into the citizens of 
to-morrow? If the school is a miniature community, and 
not merely an assemblage of isolated units, should it not 
be organized and developed as a community? If the 
children are capable of self-government in play, why not 
in work? Why should a child be subjected to autocratic 
discipline until he is twenty-one years old, and then be 
handed a ballot, certifying in effect that he is a graduate 
in democratic self-discipline? Experience has abundantly 
shown that the cvu-e for the essential evils of lawlessness 

48 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT AND STUDY 

and misgovemment in a democratic community lies in 
the honor system and self-government in the public schools. 

Despite the autocratic tradition the steady drift toward 
a more democratic management of the schools is freeing 
school discipline from much of its harshness and many 
of its unreasonable restrictions, and good order in the 
schools has increased in proportion. Very much to the 
astonishment of the prophets of evil, and very much to 
the delight of those who were apparently bent on turning 
the school world upside down, the more the children have 
been trusted, the more they have proved worthy of trust; 
the more responsibilities have been placed upon them, 
the more they have shown an appreciation of these 
responsibilities and the ability to meet them. 

The foundation of good order in the school, as in the 
nation, is the common law — the lex non scripta — that 
grows out of the customs and usages of the members of a 
community in the course of their normal daily activities. 
It is obvious, therefore, that the rules of conduct in a 
school where the democratic spirit prevails must grow 
out of the activities of the children in their pursuit of 
the course of study. The rules made by the children are 
likely to be quite as arbitrary and unreasonable as those 
laid down by the school authorities unless they grow out 
of their actual daily experience. The problem of school 
discipline is therefore fundamentally a problem in the 
formulation of the course of study. The great oppor- 
tunity of the elders — the trustees, the principal, and the 
teachers — to shape the children for efficient citizenship 
in the democracy arises in the determination of the general 
policy of the school. 

It is often said that children are essentially barbarians, 
and that if they are not held strictly within the bounds 
of arbitrary authority they will quickly revert to the con- 
duct of primitive man. This might be true if the children 
were segregated on a wild island entirely removed from the 

49 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

institutions of civilization. The trouble with the state- 
ment is that the conditions that would make it true never 
arise. The fact is that the children are members of a 
highly developed community, that from the days of early 
infancy and the nursery they have been living in an 
atmosphere of law and order, and that their domestic and 
community relationships do not cease when they go to 
school. The greatest asset which the educational author- 
ities have in their work of developing a school program is 
precisely the experience which the children have shared 
as members of civilized homes and communities. So far 
from disregarding this fact, the wisest teachers and the 
best schools are basing their entire discipline and instruc- 
tion upon the unformulated social wisdom which the 
children bring with them to the school. 

Such names as those of Froebel and Pestalozzi and 
Francis Parker and John Dewey are prominently asso- 
ciated with this point of view, which is being applied 
more or less consciously by so many excellent teachers in 
so many parts of the country that it may seem invidious 
to select any one example of its practical application. 
And yet there is probably no place in the country where, 
in its application to the rural school, it is receiving so 
thoroughgoing a test as at the Experimental Rural School 
at Rock Hill, South Carolina. 

The course of study and the government of the children 
at Rock Hill are based upon the theory that the business of 
the teacher is not so much to "hear" lessons as it is to 
organize, guide, and interpret the activities that are 
normal to the children as members of the community. 
Approaching the school in the early morning, you see across 
the privet hedge that surrounds the yard groups of children 
of all ages from six to sixteen at work in the ample school- 
garden. Some of the children are laying out seed-beds, 
some are hoeing, some are cutting flowers for the school- 
rooms, and still others are gathering lettuce for the mid- 
50 . 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT AND STUDY 

day meal. In an hour the children have worked off their 
superfluous energy and fidgetiness, they have accumulated 
experience which is to serve as the basis for the day's 
indoor work, and they are ready to go inside. First, how- 
ever, they go to the pump in one of the porches of the 
schoolhouse and wash the soil from their hands and the 
sweat from their brows at this temporary substitute for 
the shower-baths that are soon to be installed. If it is 
wise to provide shower-baths and dressing-rooms for 
athletic teams, why is it not equally wise to provide 
them for the garden teams? Moreover, there are great 
educational advantages in such an equipment; for just 
as it is easy to impress upon the members of an athletic 
team the importance of personal hygiene as a condition 
of ''fitness," so it is easy to bring the same lesson home 
to the children who take their exercise with spade and hoe 
and plow and who are quick to appreciate the delight of 
open pores and clean, glowing muscles. 

But washing is a doubtful satisfaction without towels, 
and towels do not grow on trees. If each child is to make 
his or her own set of towels the questions immediately 
arise: What kind of material is needed? How long and 
wide should the towels be ? How much material must be 
bought? What will the material cost? 

Under the guidance of the teacher the number, size, and 
cost of the towels is discussed. Tape-measure in hand, 
the children consider various lengths, and finally decide 
on towels two feet long. The older pupils then use their 
arithmetic to find out how much toweling will be needed 
to supply the school. After the cloth is bought each child 
measures off his or her towels, the size of the hem is de- 
termined, and the work of basting begins. The teacher 
explains why the damask hem is best for the purpose in 
hand and shows the children how to make it. When the 
towels are finished the children find that the hem has re- 
duced their length to twenty-two inches. 
5 51 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

They have had an invaluable lesson in number, and 
understand its meaning as they could not have done 
had they spent the same time in solving book problems 
unrelated to their experience. 

While they were in the garden the children had laid 
out some rows for beans. Several days before, a number 
of boxes had been made for testing the seed-beans, and the 
night before a handful of beans had been placed in water to 
soak. The teacher begins the lesson on beans with an in- 
formal discussion of the various varieties, of the regions to 
which the various varieties are best adapted. The chil- 
dren compare the size of the soaked beans with those that 
are not soaked. They are shown how to distinguish 
between sound seed and bad. They tear off the seed- 
coat of the swollen beans and remark its toughness. 
Then the teacher discusses with them the value of the 
bean as a food. After the discussion has been carried on 
as long as possible without fatiguing the children's atten- 
tion they go into a room, and one of the older children 
puts on the board a number of new words arranged in three 
columns — ^name-words, descriptive words, and action- 
words. The words are spelled and their meanings ex- 
plained. In the course of days the children follow the 
development of the beans and make blue-prints of them 
in their various stages of growth. From these words and 
these prints they make a Bean Book on wide, strong 
paper, the contents of which is indicated by the follow- 
ing stereotyped reproduction of the graceful, free-hand 
original: 

Preparation of Soil 

Cotton grew on the ground last year. We sowed crimson 
clover. We plowed it under in the spring. We broke up the 
ground. We broke the clods with a harrow. We laid off the 
rows three feet apart. We drilled the beans and covered them 
with three inches of dirt. We put some fertilizer on them 
June 15th. We worked them three times. 

52 



Blue-Print of Germinating Bean 

First Stage 





The bean has 






burst its seed-coat. 






The roots have 






come out. 




roots 


fine 


come 


plant 


tender 


burst 


ground 
food 


.^ 


hold 
get 



Blue-Print of Germinating Bean 
Second Sta^e 



We can see the stem 
of the bean. 



stem 



long 


grown 


curved 


holds 


longer 




upright 





Blue-Print of Germinating Bean 
Third Sta^e 



The stem has grown longer. 



plumule 


two 


leaves 


little 




thin 



peeps 
open 



Blue-Print of Germinating Bean 

Fourth Stage 





The plumule 








has grown longer. 






It has turned 


green. 






The stem is g 


reen. 




rain 


larger 




growing 


sunshine 


green 




get 

catch 

wash 

breathe 

folded 



Blue-Print of Germinating Bean 

Fifth Stage, with young leaves 





The plumule has 






unfolded. 


1 




We can see the two 






green leaves. 




bud 


heart-shaped 


shrinking 


veins 




shrunk 
unfolded 




smaller 


gone 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT AND STUDY 

Why we Cultivate our Beans 

We cultivate our beans to make them grow. It makes the 
soil soft. The roots can get food and water. It lets the plant 
have air. It forms a dust mulch. The dust mulch keeps the 
water in the ground. We kill the weeds and grass. 

Weeds 

Weeds and grass harm our beans. They take the food from 
them. They choke the beans. They keep the sun off of them. 
We can get rid of them by pulHng them and digging them up. 
Sometimes we chop them off with the hoe. This is not a good way. 
It leaves the roots in the ground, and they come up again. Weeds 
do some good. They make lazy people cultivate their gardens. 

A sequel to the Bean Book is a volume on Some Weeds 
from Our Bean Plot, illustrated with blue-prints of the 
broad-leaf plantain, the narrow-leaf plantain, the long-leaf 
plaintain, the smart-weed, the horse-nettle, and the like. 

Here are lessons in hygiene, biology, agriculture, spell- 
ing, reading, arithmetic, drawing, grammar, geography, 
all growing out of a single morning's work. And of course 
the materials for the days to come are as varied and 
inexhaustible as nature herself. 

About eleven o'clock preparations for the midday meal 
begin. The children are scattered over the building and 
the grounds — some of them in the workshop, some of 
them playing games, others busy at book-making or 
entertaining one another with stories. Lettuce is to be 
a part of the menu to-day, and the teacher calls for volun- 
teers to prepare the fresh green heads. Several girls offer 
to do the work. The teacher turns to the blackboard, 
writes the word lettuce on the blackboard, and to the right 
of lettuce the names of the tv/o girls who are to do the 
work of picking the leaves, selecting the good ones, 
washing and drying them leaf by leaf. The children spell 
the word and the two girls go to the kitchen. Voliuiteers 
are then called for to prepare the dressing for the lettuce. 

53 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

Again a dozen hands go up. The word dressing is 
written on the blackboard, with the names of the children 
who are given the assignment. The word is spelled, and 
the next two go to the kitchen. Other children go to the 
porch and begin making the table ready. Immediately 
they are confronted by a nice problem in arithmetic. 
The table is eighteen feet long, there are three guests, 
thirty-two pupils, and the teacher. After placing a chair at 
each end of the table the question is, how many chairs 
must be placed on each side? The table is laid, and in a 
few minutes luncheon is served. 

I think [writes a visitor] that they were the happiest, j oiliest 
group I ever saw. Riddles were propounded, stories were told, 
short poems recited, and in it all and through it all there was 
perfect freedom and naturalness. At the conclusion of the meal 
volunteers were called into service. A number of girls washed 
and put up the dishes, others brushed the crumbs from the table 
and pulled the chairs back, while the boys swept the floor and 
drew the water. I have been permitted to attend a good many 
functions where the menu was somewhat more elaborate; but in 
all my life I have never found so much good cheer, so much 
unaffected simplicity and politeness, as I found in this little 
Carolina school where the teacher was hostess and where the 
children were models of good behavior. As we were gathered 
about the board the mocking-bird was singing in a near-by 
apple tree and the thrush was calling to his mate in a neighboring 
hedge, while a cat-bird was making his midday meal on a big 
fat caterpillar that he had found on a peach tree whose branches 
touched the porch on which we sat. Ten minutes after dinner 
I made a note of the following groups: Using the same table 
that had been used for luncheon, a group of girls were sewing — 
making laundry - bags, handkerchiefs, etc.; just inside the 
room the teacher was conducting a history recitation; not more 
than six feet away a group of boys were planning a net with 
which they hoped to capture a bumblebee that was needed for 
the museum; out on the grass a little girl was reading RoUnson 
Crusoe to a group of children; down at the end of the porch a 
boy was doing some problems in arithmetic. Thus the work 

54 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT AND STUDY 

went on for the three hours that we stayed there — all busy, all 
happy. 

Why is it that we have been so long in discovering the 
educational value of the school luncheon? For even to- 
day in the ordinary rural school the lunch hour is not 
only a wasted opportiinity, but the parent of disorder, 
indigestion, and general discomfort. The children bring 
their liincheons in paper packages and tin or cardboard 
boxes. At noon they sit down on the wood-box, the school 
steps, at their desks, or in the yard, gulp down their cold 
victuals, scatter fragments about, and generally disregard 
their own or their comrades' comfort and health. They 
all act as if they were ashamed of eating, as if it were 
a bestial and unseemly necessity. None of the ordinary 
activities of the usual school program does so much to 
injure the manners, health, and morals of the children as 
the usual way of taking food, which should be an occasion 
for the practice of good breeding and the delights of 
human companionship. 

But, now that the meal is over, there is work to be done 
in the kitchen and for the kitchen. On the walls of the 
cookroom at Rock Hill there is a schediile for the day's 
duties something like this : 

SCHEDULE 

Cups Rose and Nell 

Plates Joe and Fred 

Knives and Forks .... Rose and Martha 

Dust Mary 

Kettles Lawrence and Charles 

Water Arthur and Conlie 

Towels Maggie and Estelle 

Line . John 

Carpenter's shop .... Ann 

Museum Nellie and Bess 

Flowers . Wilma and Johnnie 

55 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

Some things in this schedule are a bit puzzHng. ' * Why, ' ' 
you ask John, *'is your name put down after line?" To 
your barbaric mind ''Line . . . John" suggests ominous 
possibilities. But John explains that, "Yesterday the line 
on which we hang our towels and dish-cloths fell, and I 
had to fix it up this morning." 

From the kitchen to the workshop, where only useful 
things are made; from the workshop to the museum with 
its collection of plants and patterns and insects; from 
the museum back to the front porch, the children go with- 
out confusion or noise because all their activity is purpose- 
ful and natural. They do not need donHs or thou shalt 
nots. They are living the law. For what is good order, 
after all, but the order that results from the purposeful 
expression of energy? 

There are days when the entire school goes out into the 
woods and fields to gather specimens for the museum 
and to observe wild nature ; days when similar excursions 
are made to see what rivers are, and lakes and hills and 
valleys, or to study the relics of local history. 

The course of study for these children at Rock Hill is 
built out of the normal activities of the community, 
organized, simplified, and interpreted. The teacher is 
not the taskmaster or the jailer, but the guide and 
philosopher to the children. And their government is 
not a set of abstract aud uncomprehended rules, imposed 
from above, but the common law, the lex non scripta 
which evolves naturally and inevitably for the necessity 
of living and doing things together. With them coopera- 
tion is not a theory; it is the living spirit of activities that 
cannot be successfully carried out except through mutual 
aid. 

There are two sets of activities in this description of a 
day at Rock Hill — the activities such as washing the hands 
and preparing the meal that result from universal neces- 
sity, and the activities like hoeing and spading that are 

56 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT AND STUDY 

peculiar to the agriciiltural environment. But the spirit 
of the school — its government and course of study — is 
capable of application in any community whatsoever, 
city or country, north or south, east or west. What can 
be done with beans can be done equally well with com 
or wheat, or in making chairs and tables in the workshop. 
It may be objected that so informal a course of study as 
that described will make grading difficult or impossible, 
that it must ultimately undermine the children's sense of 
discipline, and that in any case it places an undue tax 
upon the attention, energy, and resources of the teacher. 
On the contrary, Mrs. Hetty S. Browne, the teacher in 
charge of the school, declares that the children who 
have made practical use of their arithmetic are quicker 
at the solution of original problems than children of the 
same age who have been held too close to the text-book; 
that by judicious assignment of tasks appropriate to the 
ages and abilities of the children they progress more 
rapidly and show a more rounded development than 
children who are restrained in the Procrustean bed of rigid 
and arbitrary grades ; and that the interested expenditure 
of their energies upon the materials of their actual experi- 
ence results in good order in the midst of the greatest 
liberty and in an admirable spirit of self-reliance and 
neighborly consideration. No doubt it is true that so 
informal a course of study demands for its successful 
leadership a vital personality, a well-trained mind, and a 
resourceful imagination. But on the other hand, the 
very demands which it makes tend to develop these 
qualities as they never can be developed where the per- 
sonality of the teacher is subordinated to the routine of a 
text-book course and the daily program runs in cast-iron 
grooves. Text-books are of superlative value when they 
are used for reference and as tools; the more good books 
the teacher and children have at their command, the bet- 
ter. But when the text-book is permitted to supersede the 

57 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

living personality of an alert teacher and to chain the free, 
normal activities of the children, it defeats the ends of 
true education and becomes an instrument of torture and 
bondage. 

We teach the more formal subjects [writes Mrs. Browne, in 
an article published in the Atlantic Educational Journal for 
December, 191 2] such as reading, spelling, writing, arithmetic, 
drawing, language, as far as possible, in connection with our 
work in cooking, housekeeping, manual training, agriculture, sew- 
ing, etc. Some work has to be done in books, but this, as far as 
possible, is connected vitally with the work in which the child 
is interested. 

The children work in groups. An older pupil works with 
several younger ones. He not only does his work in such a 
manner that the younger ones may use it for a model, but he 
helps them to do theirs. In this way he gets a double benefit 
from the lesson. 

All of the pupils are engaged in the same line of work — boys 
and girls, and from the youngest to the oldest. The older pupils 
go into more elaborate detail than the younger ones do. I can 
explain my meaning better by taking some concrete examples: 

1. In drawing the plan of the garden: Each child draws a 
plan of his own garden. The youngest draw simple rectangles; 
the older ones draw their plan to a scale, and the oldest draw 
theirs to a scale, and, in addition, indicate the directions on their 
plan. 

2. In the cooking lessons: All cook the same thing. The 
younger ones do what they can; the older ones do the rest. 
Those who can write copy the recipe in a permanent note- 
book; the older ones, in addition to copying the recipe, de- 
scribe the process of combining the materials. They also write 
simple compositions on subjects connected with their cooking, 
such as "How to Scour Knives," "The Different Kinds of 
Fruit," "How to Can Fruit for the Winter," "How to Pre- 
serve Fruit," "How to Keep Foods for the Winter." 

3. In sewing: All work on the same problem. The older ones 
draft the patterns for the younger. The younger ones cut the 
garment by the pattern and make it, using simpler stitches 
than the older ones use. 

58 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT AND STUDY 

4. In history: In this subject the older ones have a book 
which they read and study. They use the sand-table to make 
models. At the social period they take turns in telHng the 
younger children stories they have read in history, referring to 
the sand-table for illustration. They tell the story not as a 
child reciting a lesson to a teacher, but as one person telling 
another a beautiful story or a thrilling adventure. 

To go more into detail I shall take the simple boiling of the 
potato. The children have had a lesson in the boiling of water. 
Each child has a potato. On the table there are knives, water, 
glasses, cheesecloth, grater, bowls, and iodine. The children 
describe the potato, and as they do so the words developed are 
written on the blackboard in three columns. Not a word is said 
to the younger ones about the parts of speech, but the older ones 
understand. The describing of the potato is made a sense- 
perception lesson. The following words are developed: 

Potato, skin, tuber, bud, stem, flesh; long, round, rough, thin, 
indented, underground, brown, whitish, firm, white; grows, 
sprouts, matures. 

Later in the day this forms a language lesson and a spelling 
lesson for the advanced pupils. The various tests for starch 
are tried. The advanced pupils write on blackboard in com- 
plete sentences a description of the test and the conclusion 
reached. They write in a column these words: 

Water, starch, woody fiber. 

Directions for boiling the potato are written on blackboard. 
All who can do so read them. Potatoes are put on to boil. One 
child is appointed time-keeper. 

All of the children turn their attention to the work they can 
do in connection with the potato. The more advanced ones, 
under the teacher's direction, learn something of the history of 
the potato from books. The youngest pupils model the potato 
with clay. All make a drawing of the potato. The youngest 
draw only the outline, while the more advanced make a study of 
the potato. In this lesson the pupil is studying reading, spelling, 
grammar, composition, history, geography, a little arithmetic, 
drawing, and clay modeling. 

No doubt a "model school" has appeared to the minds 
of the readers of this description of the school at Rock 

59 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

Hill. They see a specially trained teacher working with 
a carefully prepared "course of study"; children from 
"refined" homes; single, adjustable desks; a schoolhouse 
built in accordance with the latest plans for ventilation, 
lighting, and sanitation. Fortunately or unfortunately, 
the picture does not correspond with the facts. The 
teacher is just a healthy, vigorous woman without a trace 
of mannerism or of "pedagese" about her — without a 
suggestion of the didactic in attitude or voice. The 
children come principally from the homes of tenant 
farmers. There is not a patent desk in the house. The 
building was a modest residence that has been turned 
over to the school authorities. It is surrounded by 
porches, and on those porches, as in each of the several 
rooms, we found groups of busy children. At a particular 
moment we observed a group of girls busy in the kitchen ; 
a group of boys doing some woodwork in the bench- 
room; several girls sewing together on one of the porches; 
four boys sitting about a stove and studying together; 
the teacher and seven children on the back porch reading 
an absorbing story. And not a desk! Just chairs and 
tables as at home. 

One boy wished to "go out." He didn't ask permis- 
sion; he just went, and in a few minutes he was back 
again at his work. 

A little six-year-old walked up to the teacher and said: 
"I don't know how to work this next stitch." 
"I haven't time to show you now," said the teacher; 
"go over there and ask Carrie to show you." 

The child got a chair, took it over near the end of the 
porch, and in a moment Carrie, who was perhaps ten years 
old, was showing her how to work the stitch. 

About half past ten a teacher came from the normal 
school near by and taught music to the whole school on 
the large side porch. After the lesson the children again 
went about their work. There wasn't any "marching." 

60 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT AND STUDY 

The children walked naturally — they did everything 
naturally without boisterousness and equally without 
unnatural quiet. 

Indeed, the most wonderful thing about the school was 
the pervasive air of perfect simplicity, perfect sincerity, 
perfect naturalness. In all the day's work we did not 
hear a donH or a pious platitude. And there was no sign of 
''busy work," that device of the devil to wheedle the chil- 
dren into contentment with a lifeless *' program." Why 
should there have been? Every moment of the day was 
filled with the rich materials of normal, useful experience 
through which the children were learning how to read and 
write and think and work together. This is the only 
"busy work" that is worth while, because it needs doing 
wherever human beings move and live. And a course of 
study that arouses and holds the living interest of the 
children automatically solves the problem of democratic 
self-discipline. The best-governed school, like the best- 
governed community, is one in which the citizens live the 
law. 



V 

THE WIDENING OUTLOOK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

THE solution of the problem of the course of study in 
the elementary grades is comparatively simple once 
it is agreed that it must be developed out of the normal 
activities of the children, concentrated on the materials 
of community life. The principle adopted at Rock Hill 
is equally applicable to city and rural schools, although 
the rural school has the great advantage of space, elbow- 
room, easier access to abundant materials. The satisfac- 
tory development of the methods so successfully followed 
at Rock Hill will require a much larger expenditure 
in the cities where land is dear and where the nearness 
of the homes to the school plant interferes with the com- 
plete control of the children even during school hours. 
But heretofore the cities, in spite of their handicaps, have 
done more than the rural districts to liberalize the course 
of study through the development of the kindergarten, 
courses in domestic science and manual training, and the 
extension of the spirit of the kindergarten through the 
elementary grades by means of school - gardens, play- 
grounds, and workshops. Splendid efforts have ' been 
made in this direction ; but the physical limitations of the 
city schools have tended to narrow the application of this 
liberal spirit by forcing the city teachers to invent ma- 
terials to take the place of the natural materials that are 
so abundant in the country, with the result that even 
kindergarten, domestic-science, and manual-training prac- 

62 



THE WIDENING OUTLOOK 

tices have shown a tendency to fall into conventional and 
academic grooves. The rural school-teachers are com- 
paratively free from these limitations, and there is every 
reason to expect that if they will take advantage of their 
more fortunate situation they will soon win a position of 
leadership in the adjustment of the course of study to the 
living needs of the children in the elementary grades. 

The moment we leave the early elementary grades, 
however, and come to deal with the problems of the course 
of study for the children who have arrived at an age when 
it is necessary for them to consider the occupation through 
which they must earn a living, difficulties multiply. There 
are wide differences of opinion as to the age at which the 
training of the children should be definitely specialized. 
Here again, however, the rural school has a distinct 
advantage over the city school because of the vastly 
superior simplicity of the country-life problem. There 
are scores of practical vocations in all our industrial 
centers, whereas the dominant vocation in the country is 
agriculture. 

The problem of industrial training for city children has 
been partially solved in Cincinnati, Ohio, and in Fitchburg, 
Massachusetts, by an open alliance between certain 
groups of manufacturers and the educational authorities. 
In 1909 the mem.bers of the Metal Trades Association of 
Cincinnati agreed that if the school authorities wotild 
furnish teachers, building, and ordinary school equipment, 
they would supply at least one hundred and fifty boys 
out of the ranks of their apprentices for four hours each 
week without docking their wages. As a result the city 
operates a continuation-school four and a half days a week 
during forty-eight weeks in the year. Several hundred 
apprentices are in attendance four hours a week, and 
receive their usual wage for attendance. Two half-days 
the instructors spend visiting the boys in their work- 
shops, counseling with their foremen, and getting vital 

63 



THE WORK OF THE RUEAL SCHOOL 

material for classroom use. The cooperating manu- 
facturers are enthusiastic; they have found that the four 
hours a week spent by the boys in school, so far from 
decreasing their output, actually increases it. This re- 
sult is in part accounted for by the systematic technical 
training of the boys, but in part also by the fact that the 
instructors furnished by the city, being men of special 
ability and experience, are frequently able to solve shop 
problems that are too stiff for the ordinary foremen. 
In 191 1 an additional continuation-school was opened in 
Cincinnati for the apprentices in the eleven trades classed 
as the Allied Printing Trades ; and a similar arrangement 
has been entered into by a small group of manufacturers 
in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, with the educational author- 
ities of that city, for the special training of apprentices in 
the machinist's, patternmaker's, and saw-making trades. 

Where such an alliance is effected the scheme works well 
for the small number of boys involved. In Rochester, 
where the attempt has been made to train a larger number 
of boys for specific vocations before the boys have gone 
to work, it has been found that only a small percentage 
of the boys enter or remain in the vocations for which 
the schools have especially trained them. The fullest 
and apparently the most successful effort to hitch up city 
schools with the actual industrial life of the city com- 
munity has been made in Munich, Germany. 

In Munich compulsory attendance upon the elementary 
schools is followed by compulsory attendance upon voca- 
tional continuation-schools for all boys and girls who do 
not elect the higher academic courses. Boys must 
attend until they are eighteen ; girls for three years after 
they have completed the elementary grades. Side by 
side with the compulsory continuation-schools are volun- 
tary continuation-schools for students who prefer voca- 
tional training to academic work, but who are not under 
the necessity of entering the trades. 

64 



THE WIDENING OUTLOOK 

Of the total school poptilation of somewhat more than 
100,000 children about 20,000 are in these industrial con- 
tinuation-schools — 9,400 boys and 7,500 girls under 
compulsion, and 3,700 girls as volunteers. The 9,400 
boys are distributed into fifty-two trade and twelve 
general industrial schools. Every trade having as many 
as twenty-five apprentices has a school of its own. The 
twelve general schools are attended by about 1,100 un- 
skilled workmen — day-laborers, barrow-men, errand-boys, 
servants. The 7,500 girls in the compulsory classes are 
distributed into forty schools. All of these girls are 
taught the principles of home-making in addition to the 
technique of their chosen trades. There are several 
voluntary continuation-schools for advanced apprentices 
who are ready to become full-fledged joiimeymen and 
masters. One of these is devoted to commercial appren- 
tices, a second to painters, a third to the building trades, 
another to the printers, locksmiths, and the like, a fifth 
to the wood- workers. The butchers' trade -school is 
operated in connection with the municipal slaughter- 
house. In short, the continuation-schools of Munich are 
woven into the very texture of the city's industrial life. 

In describing these schools Dr. Georg Kerschensteiner, 
Director of Education in Munich, says that attendance 
was made compulsory on broad groimds of public policy, 
because "the youthful worker has more and more become 
an object of cheap labor," and cheap and ill-educated 
labor is an unsatisfactory foundation for national efficiency. 
So the children are forced to attend, although attendance 
usually costs them a deduction in wages. Furthermore, 
"as long as the continuation-school remains optional, 
thousands of employers will prevent their youthftd 
workmen from making use of its opportunities, except at 
the end of the day's work, when mind and body are 
fatigued; and even in cases where some reasonable em- 
ployers would be willing to grant their boys time for 
6 65 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

study they would probably do it only if the training 
in question were principally in the interest of their own 
trade." 

And besides, Dr. Kerschensteiner goes on to insist, it is a 
narrow view that sees in the competent workmen the 
exclusive aim of the industrial school; industrial educa- 
tion must regard ''technical training only as a means for 
mental and moral training"; its object must be the 
enlightened citizen of an industrial democracy who has a 
living joy in his work, and who ''not only seeks to ad- 
vance his own welfare through his work, but also con- 
sciously places his labor in the service of the community." 
Accordingly, the student in the Munich continuation- 
schools is "instructed in the historical development of 
the trade to which he belongs ; he is shown in the struggles 
of his fellow-workers the continually growing interde- 
pendence of interests among all citizens of a community; 
concrete examples of devotion to a common cause are 
placed before him ; and so by degrees he is led to recognize 
how the problems arose which occupy town and nation 
to-day, and to understand the duties and rights of the 
individual within the state." 

But in spite of the apparent success of the Munich plan 
in Mimich the question as to whether it is applicable to 
American cities is still in debate. And there is a strong 
feeling that the experience of Rochester justifies the 
contention that the education of the children who are to 
enter industry should not be specialized during their 
public-school career, that specialization should be left to 
the industry itself and to the higher technical schools. 
For it must be remembered that the object of industrial 
training in the schools is not the enslavement of the 
children to any vocation, but the highest development of 
their capacities through "typical and continuous lines 
of activity which are of social value to everybody." 

This is not the place for a detailed discussion of the 

66 



THE WIDENING OUTLOOK 

problem of industrial training as it appears in our indus- 
trial centers. The point is that here again the city problem 
is infinitely more complex and difficult than the analogous 
problem in the country. For it is a safe assumption that 
if rural life can be made socially and economically attrac- 
tive the great majority of the children in the open country 
will look to the land and the profession of agriculture for 
a living. 

The inauguration by the national government of the 
agricultural and mechanical colleges was the beginning of 
a great movement for scientific agriculture. Necessarily 
placed at the start largely in the hands of those whose 
training had been academic rather than scientific, these 
institutions have been gradually freeing themselves from 
the academic outlook, and have long since become an 
indispensable asset of our civilization. But the hope 
that a sufficient number of students would attend the 
agricultural colleges to transform agriculture did not 
materialize; and so in recent years the effort of these 
colleges, in addition to educating students in scientific 
agriculture, has been largely directed to the dissemina- 
tion of information to advdt farmers through bulletins 
and circulars based on the work of experiment stations 
and experiment farms, and in this the United States De- 
partment of Agriculture has also taken a very active and 
effective part. Millions of bulletins and circulars have 
been distributed, many of which have proved of great 
value in improving the methods of those who work on the 
land. The states, too, through their departments of 
agriculture, have helped in this phase of agricultural 
extension. One state college annotmces on its bulletin, 
"If you can't come to the college, the college will come to 
you." Another sends out a monthly Annunciator, dealing 
with problems of immediate concern to the farmers. 

But, notwithstanding the great amount of good done by 
this extension work, it has been found that a very large 

67 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

proportion of the farmers do not send for the Hterature 
on agricultural subjects, and that of those who do, a very- 
large proportion are unable to follow printed directions. 
In addition, therefore, to issuing bulletins, farmers' insti- 
tutes and demonstration trains have been started by the 
agricultural colleges and the state agricultural depart- 
ments, with the hearty cooperation of the United States 
Department of Agriculture. This method has also been a 
means of spreading information. Excellent exhibits of 
products and of labor-saving devices have been studied 
by the hundreds and thousands of men and women who 
have come to the stations to attend these institutes and 
to hear the talks made by the men and women having the 
exhibits in charge. Other thousands have been reached 
by the "movable school" — a school of a few days' dura- 
tion held in the country districts for the benefit of farm 
men and women at a distance from the railroads. And 
in recent years many agricultural colleges have offered 
short winter and summer courses for the accommodation 
of those who are able to leave the farm only during the 
intervals of planting and harvesting. All these activities 
have been supplemental to the state farmers' institutes, 
which, with their local branches, have not only helped 
to spread knowledge, but have done much to secure 
legislation favorable to the development of agriculture 
and farm life. But the United States Department of 
Agriculture estimates that with all this effort not one 
farmer in a hundred is effectively reached. 

The important result of all this activity has been its 
broadening influence on the popular conception of the func- 
tion of public education. Courses in agriculture are now 
offered in the high schools and even the elementary 
schools of many states, and a demand has arisen for 
schools of agriculture and domestic science to reach the 
large number of country boys and girls who cannot 
attend college^ and who, if they could do so, need an eariier 

68 



THE WIDENING OUTLOOK 

and more elementary preparation than the colleges give. 
It has been widely recognized that to deny these students 
such training is to banish them forever from legitimate 
opportunity. The attempts to meet this demand have re- 
sulted in various types of schools — the county agricultural 
school, in which the teaching of agriculture and domestic 
science is placed in the curriculum with the usual academic 
studies; the congressional district schools, some of which 
have none of the so-called "cultural" studies, and others 
of which teach both the farm-life subjects and also the aca- 
demic ^subjects ; the county farm-life schools, which teach 
agriculture and domestic science together with the ele- 
mentary subjects leading to these ; and the agriculttu-al 
high schools of the Minnesota type. 

All of these schools are still in the experimental stage. 
They have been worth every dollar spent on them because 
they are helping to show the ways to go and the ways not 
to go. The criticism that, because some agricultural 
schools or farm-life schools have not met expectations, 
the whole plan of agricultural training is a failure and 
should be abolished is short-sighted on the part of those 
who are impatient for results and foolish on the part of 
those who still cling to the superstition that the best 
training in agriculture is a training in the purely academic 
subjects, and that our ** culture" is in danger when it 
comes into contact with the soil. 

It is not a waste of time or money to try experiments. 
All the money ever spent in the United States on agri- 
cultural colleges, agricultural schools, and agricultural 
experiments would not amount to the returns that the 
country has secured, for example, from the work of 
Babcock, of the agricultural department of the University 
of Wisconsin. No one contends that Thomas A. Edison 
was foolish because he spent one million dollars in cash 
and five years of time and performed over fifty thousand 
experiments before he succeeded in producing the proper 

69 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

filler for a little cylinder the size of one's finger which was 
needed to make his electric battery a commercial success. 
Some one is said to have asked Edison, after he had per- 
formed over nine hundred experiments with no apparent 
results, if he didn't think he was wasting his time. 

"No," was his prompt reply; "I have found out over 
nine hundred ways not to do it!" 

So the experimenters in agriciiltural instruction are 
clearing the way for proper methods of teaching agriculture 
and domestic science to boys and girls, men and women, 
and the best ways to carry the fruits of agricultural 
knowledge to the largest number of people. 

Those who believe or hope that the whole industrial 
movement will be swept out of the schools and that the 
people of this country will confine their children to the 
three R's of the old curriculum — the reading, writing, and 
arithmetic of the elementary school, and the Latin, Greek, 
and higher mathematics of the high schools and colleges — 
delude themselves. It is perfectly evident that nothing 
can stop this movement, which will not only have those 
things taught which can be related to every-day life, 
but will insist that they shall be so related. A "culture" 
which is afraid of the soil is not even skin-deep. A course 
of study that permits its recipient to go out into the world 
imbued with the idea of easy self-aggrandizement, even if it 
is saturated with classical studies, is a refined hedonism 
that will not stand the acid test of modern requirements 
of citizenship in a democracy. It springs from the ancient 
idea that some work is degrading, while other work is not. 
Salary gives itself airs and makes faces at Wages. It is 
forgotten by some, and studiously overlooked by others, 
that the only thing degrading about any work is the 
motive behind it and the manner of its doing. 

The traditional course of study offered by the classical 
colleges and the dominating influence of these institutions 
of higher learning have made a difficult situation for the 

70 




SCHOOL-BUILDING AND HOUSE FOR TEACHERS AND FOR DOMESTIC- 
SCIENCE CLASSES 




SCHOOL - BUILDING, TEACHERS' RESIDENCE, HORSE - SHEDS FOR THE 

NEIGHBORS 

Two Ohio Community Centers 



THE WIDENING OUTLOOK 

elementary schools that have desired to widen their 
outlook and modernize their courses. A friction has 
resulted which has often proved irritating to both parties, 
but which has been of great value in forcing a renewed 
study of the content of the courses of study in their 
relation to contemporary life. The difficulty has arisen 
from a purblind attempt to force the children's activities 
to fit a medieval tradition instead of permitting the 
course of study to evolve naturally out of the normal life 
of living communities. Some of the colleges and uni- 
versities, impressed with the irrepressible insistence of 
the new democratic spirit, are reorganizing and readjusting 
their entrance requirements and their courses of study. It 
is a slow and painful process. Any serious modification of 
a program that has been static for generations is necessarily 
slow and painful. But that there has been the courage to 
make the attempt is in itself a hopeful sign, and the ap- 
proval that has instantly come to the pioneers in this 
democratic movement has given notice to the laggards that 
they must take a similar course or drop out altogether. 
The more numerous the colleges and universities that 
adopt a democratic program and outlook, the easier will 
it be for the elementary and high schools to develop an 
effective program. And the more the elementary and 
high schools insist upon a vital program, the more neces- 
sary will it become for the state and private institutions 
of higher learning to meet the situation by adjustment 
instead of by continued resistance. 

Along with the attempt through agriciiltural and 
domestic-science schools to reach more boys and girls than 
the agricultural colleges can ever hope to reach, and to 
give those who plan to attend these colleges a more 
thorough preparation, has come a wide-spread movement, 
which, reaching down through the high schools to the 
elementary schools, has aroused enormous interest. 
This is the extension work by means of boys' com and 

71 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

pig clubs, boys' and girls* garden clubs, and sewing and 
cooking clubs among the girls. It has sprung up ''over 
night," as it were, and has naturally taken many forms. 
Hundreds of thousands of children in all parts of the 
United States have joined these clubs, and the exhibits 
of their handiwork at annual state fairs, at county fairs, 
and at school fairs have captured the popular imagina- 
tion. It is significant that state departments of agri- 
culture and education, agricultural colleges, universities, 
normal schools, and the United States Department of 
Agriculture have all joined in fostering this movement, 
though some of them have been swept forward by the tide 
rather than by their own free will. Rural-school work 
has been greatly quickened by this splendid next-step 
in the nation-wide democratization of public education 
which is doing so much to conserve and develop the 
latent boy-power and girl-power upon which the conserva- 
tion and development of all else in the nation depends. 
In a majority of the states men and women are now em- 
ployed whose whole time is given to organizing this 
extension work. The materials which they are carrying 
into the schoolrooms out of the living activities of the 
children are making it much easier than it formerly was 
for the teacher to free the course of study from formalism 
and to "hitch education up with life." 

Probably the first form of extension work was that done 
in the school-garden, and it is safe to say that nothing has 
added more to the health, the happiness, and the educa- 
tion of the children, especially in the cities and towns. 
Wherever it has been intelligently used the school-garden 
has helped to free the children and the curriculum from 
bookishness. It has given the children a chance to come 
into intimate and joyous contact with earth and nature. 
It has given them an outlet for their energies and kept 
them from drifting into mischief. And it has given oppor- 
tunities to the teachers to gather rich material for courses of 

72 



THE WIDENING OUTLOOK 

study that were suffering woefully from a lack of fresh 
air. 

The school-garden has not been used in the rural dis- 
tricts as freely as in the cities and towns because the 
country is slower to adopt new ideas ; because it has been 
thought that children could get all the gardening they 
needed at home; because school-gardening has been con- 
sidered a fad by those who could not see what it had to 
do with "education"; and because in vacation there are 
often not enough children near the school to look after 
the growing plants. 

As a part of the school program — as a part of the 
"course of study," to use the usual term — the school- 
garden is, nevertheless, indispensable to the rural school. 

Many vegetables can be raised during the fall and spring, 
while the school is in session. As a relaxation from the in- 
door studies it is of essential value; the daily use of the 
school-garden causes the children to advance more rapidly 
in their formal studies. It provides material for excellent 
lessons in botany, language, arithmetic, physics, biology, 
spelling, and reading. Many of the vegetables can be 
sold ; many can be used in the cooking-classes, and can be 
served at the daily school lunches. The school-garden is 
a sign-board that says to the children, "Come and Do!" 
and is in striking contrast to the usual one that says, 
"Don't!" Children who have flowers and vegetables of 
their own expend their pent-up energies in orderly, and 
not in disorderly, activities. They learn the use of the 
best tools; how to cultivate and fertilize the soil; how to 
follow up one crop with another, so as to keep the land 
"busy"; all this makes for good citizenship. 

The size of the garden will depend, of course, on the 
number of children who are to work in it. It should be 
used mainly by the little children if the school is one of 
several rooms. The larger children, as will be shown 
later, will have their gardens and agricultural plots at 

73 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

home. Whether the garden should be in separate plots 
for each child or should be worked in common by all the 
workers can probably best be answered by carrying on 
both plans together — the separate plots for the children 
to "own" individually, and to receive each one the fruits 
of his and her labor; and a "common" garden for the 
school, worked in cooperation by all, the proceeds to 
belong to the school community and to be used to purchase 
books, pictures, etc., for the common delight. 

If there is a sufficient number of children in the imme- 
diate neighborhood to cultivate the garden during vaca- 
tion, it should be kept going all summer. Where the 
school cottage is, as it should be, a part of the school 
equipment, the garden can be utilized the year round to 
supply the cottage on whatever fair and equitable terms 
may be decided upon, provided always that there shall 
be no exploitation of any one by any one else. The 
school-garden, to be of educative value, must be coopera- 
tive. 

Here is an account of how a school-garden was started 
at a school situated on several acres of land on the edge 
of a farming village of about five hundred people who 
had never heard of school-gardening. The teacher who 
started the garden work had nothing but determination 
and tact. She had never attempted to teach gardening 
before. She began by securing the promise of the trustees 
that they would support her in her effort. 

The patrons [she says, in describing the beginnings of the 
work] were nearly all opposed to it — to the formal garden work 
and the actual labor attached to it. Some said: 

"My boys have farm work enough to do at home, and they 
don't have long in school no way. They've been doing that kind 
of work ever since they was born; 'tain't nothin' for them to 
learn. This here farming out of books I don't think much of." 

Many requests came for boys to be excused from garden 
work. Mothers wrote notes, came to the school-doors and 

74 



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IN THE GARDEN 




consulting the teacher 
At the Rock Hill Experimental School, S. C. 



THE WIDENING OUTLOOK 

pleaded for their ''sickly" little lean girl to be excused, or their 
overgrown fat girl that had never been allowed to over-exert 
herself, to be excused. They said that their daughters weren't 
allowed to use hoes and rakes at home; that it was foolish for 
people in the country to have to learn to farm. It was good 
enough for poor little city children, but country people knew all 
about it — "and too much, too." Some patrons even decided 
to employ a private teacher. One patron sent her daughter to 
the rural school three miles away for two or three weeks, but then 
applied to know if she would be allowed to return. The answer 
was, "She may if she will take gardening." 

The principal said, "We must make this work elective. I 
believe in it, but I don't believe it should be compulsory. It is 
going to break up our school and ruin everything." I tried to 
make him see that he was unduly excited, that the patrons knew 
nothing about curriculums, and I was not going to give up; 
that I didn't believe the state should spend from one thousand 
to two thousand dollars per year to give training to two or 
three, when there were one hundred and fifty to be trained. 
The daily average attendance dropped about 5 per cent, for 
about one week and then all (except two) were back in place 
ready to do as they were bidden. In about three months every 
patron but two was helping us on our way. The principal was 
himself a genuine convert in a few weeks. The patrons who 
did not wholly believe in it viewed it with a question-mark 
until they themselves believed in it. A few openly and on all 
occasions spoke in favor of it, and said, "It is a good thing." 

To overcome the indifference I did all possible to show the 
good in the work, to apply it to life, to get the pupils interested; 
and as soon as the child was won I had the patron. I visited 
some parents and explained to them what it all meant, and as 
soon as they understood, the indifference melted into warmth 
and cooperation. The same method was used with opposition, 
except that a compulsory order from the trustees was issued that 
no pupil could be excused from garden work without a certificate 
from a physician requesting it on health conditions. 

The ground at the school was so rough that a man had to be 
employed to break it and get it into shape for the children. 
The school-board was persuaded to buy the following equipment: 

75 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

One dozen large spading-forks (for boys). 

One dozen small spading-forks (for girls). 

Two dozen onion-hoes. 

One dozen large scufHe-hoes (for boys). 

One dozen small scuffle-hoes (for girls). 

Two dozen trowels. 

One ax. 

One mattox. 

One rat-proof seed-box. 

About five dollars ($5) in seed. 

One garden plow. 

One dozen large rakes. 

One dozen small rakes. 

Perhaps a few other articles. 

One garden line and reel. 

All kinds of difficulties in regard to soil problems confronted 
us, and it was the 17th of July before our first real work with the 
pupils began. 

The plots were laid off 14 x 16 feet, leaving a path two feet 
wide all around the plot. The plots were staked and numbered, 
and each pupil assigned one plot by number. To get the 
pupils to work during the summer I visited every home, explained 
the work, its object, its educational value, its commercial value, 
its health value, its moral value, and asked for volunteers. 
There were thirty-three (ss) boys and girls from seven to 
sixteen years of age who promised to come every morning at 
six o'clock (I allowed them to vote on the hour), and work for 
two hours, and, if necessary, three hours, in these little gardens. 
The first morning the thirty-three happy children were there, and 
I had to study out the management of tools, not having enough 
of one kind to go around, and in some cases I allowed boys to 
bring tools from their homes. We could not afford any more 
then. (Those already bought were on ten months' time.) 

The 17th of July was just in time to plant gardens for a pro- 
duction of fall vegetables. The pupils were promised all the 
money they could make on these plots. They averaged (with 
that late garden and in its beginnings) four dollars ($4) per plot 
per pupil (they gathered their products and sold them). The 
girls seemed to think the work a little heavy at first, but the 

76 



THE WIDENING OUTLOOK 

boys watched the girls closely and offered to spade for them, to 
carry their tools to the toolhouse, to put them in place. I smiled 
approvingly at the boys for this, and gave them side-talks about 
good garden manners; and the very first teasing that started 
I talked to the girls alone, and then to the boys, showing them 
the immorality of teasing, and seldom ever again saw any 
inclination to tease. The ethical side of life showed more 
sweetly and prominently in the garden than elsewhere. 

Three times a week these little gardeners came, and roses 
showed in faces in which I had never before seen them. Several 
girls and boys improved physically. Their interest in plant life 
seemed to give them an interest in all life. It was the most 
wide-awake work I ever did. It was as great a study in human 
life as in plant life, as great a study in brain soil as in earth soil; 
and I learned there as never before that there was as much 
difference in brain soil as in earth soil; that it produces as many 
and as great variety of products and permitted of as many 
varieties of cultivation, and that they all changed for the better 
under proper culture, and the culture of each one was as different 
from the culture of another as the culture of different plants. 

The second session, 1909 and 19 10, there was not one note 
of complaint or opposition, and every one seemed interested. 
I felt that I had the cooperation of patrons and pupils. 

The pupils had not worked long before they hailed with de- 
light every feature of the garden work, and when the bell rang 
for the work to stop and for all to line up and put tools in place 
they frequently asked to be allowed to work longer. During the 
school session some would ask to come on Saturday to work in 
their gardens. 

The general improvement in home-yards and home-gardens 
gratified me quite as much as anything. 

I secured many government seeds and distributed them among 
pupils to give away or to use at home. Many women and some 
men came for advice regarding their gardens; and some told 
me of what they had learned through their children, and how 
hard it had been to get them interested in home affairs before 
the school had a garden, and now how much they talked about 
the home-garden and planned for it. 

During the winter months, when we had a very few lessons 

n 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

outdoors, we studied the theory and then appHed it during the 
spring and summer. 

I did not accomplish there one-fourth of what was in my mind, 
but I enjoyed what was done and felt that it did some good. 

The garden work was often used as the basis for number, 
language, and nature study in my regular class work. 

I did this garden work in addition to my regular work without 
any additional salary. 

Extending the school-garden to the home, but keeping 
it in close connection with the school program, has been a 
logical and beautiful evolution. Many of the children 
live too far from the school to utilize the school-garden 
except during school-hours. The home-garden not only 
meets this difficulty, but establishes an important con- 
necting-link between the school and the home which can- 
not be formed with the school-garden alone. 

A principal of a state normal school, who has done 
notable work in school-gardening, says: "I had long ago 
come to the conclusion that home-gardens were the 
solution of this question in nine cases out of ten. The 
difficulty of maintaining the school-garden during the 
summer months is insurmountable except in rare in- 
stances." And the influence of the home-garden reaches 
beyond the children to the homes themselves. *'I can- 
not begin to tell you," says one writer, **of the improved 
appearance of the whole town, including the farmhouses 
on the outskirts. The cleaning and yard-decoration fever 
seem to be very contagious, spreading rapidly." 

In the fall of 191 1 the agricultural extension department 
of a western state university began organizing gardening 
clubs. By spring there were five thousand boys and girls 
actively at work, and 60 per cent, of them were working 
at home. The method of procedure is to send to any 
interested teacher enrolment-blanks and a constitution. 
When the enrolment-blanks are returned the boys and 
girls are given certain privileges provided by the consti- 

78 



THE WIDENING OUTLOOK 

tution and by-laws, such as the following: The local club 
may receive from the division of agricultural education 
of the university, (i) the bi-weekly issued for the gar- 
deners, (2) a club pin or button, (3) seeds, (4) permission 
to enter "growing" contests, etc. Each club has a super- 
visor, president, vice-president, secretary, and treasurer, 
the teacher in every club being the supervisor, the chil- 
dren holding the other offices. Reports of the work of the 
club are sent to the director of extension work at the 
university. Wherever practicable, a ''garden city" is 
organized on a self-government basis. The director states 
that in many instances the gardens are quite ambitious 
affairs, some of them furnishing all of the vegetables for 
the home table, besides netting a small income to the 
grower. 

The evolution of the course of study from such work as 
this is inevitable; lessons in botany, geography, reading, 
writing, arithmetic, oral and written expression, spelling, 
and drawing spring from it in abundance. Here are two 
examples in botany, spelling, writing, and language. 

From a little girl: 

Our teacher is having us write about our gardens. I have 
planted a garden at home that is doing better than the one at 
school. In my home-garden I have planted lettuce and radishes 
that are coming up, and carrots, onions, and spinach that 
haven't yet come up. For flowers I have planted sweet-peas, 
poppies, and pansies. 

From a fifth-grade boy: 

When I came into the room I found a lima bean, on my desk. 
It had been soaked for three days. How did the water enter 
the seed? It entered through the microphyle, a tiny hole. 
When the water entered, this caused action in the seed and made 
sugar. The water was next drawn through the coat of the seed 
by osmosis. 

We then opened the seed-coat. We saw the embryo, which 

79 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

is the baby plant, and the cotyledons, which are the two fat 
seed-leaves, or food-leaves. 

This girl and boy seem to be able to express themselves 
with a reasonable degree of lucidity. The boy appears to 
know the meaning of the words microphyle, osmosis, em- 
bryo, and cotyledon. One is reminded of the distinguished 
clergyman who said before a school that a boy who ex- 
pected to study electricity should know Greek, because 
without it he could not understand the meaning of the 
word electricity or know that it came from the Greek word 
electron. Meanwhile one little fellow, altogether innocent 
of his sad plight, had made an entirely workable outfit for 
wireless telegraphy. 

Like the school-garden, the school-farm is necessary to 
the completely developed school program because it 
supplies in convenient form and at the school center some 
of the essential materials of community life through v/hich 
the older children especially may apply and test their 
classroom information; because it can be made a place 
for experimentation in community problems, such as 
determining whether other crops than those commonly 
raised in the neighborhood can be made profitable, and 
whether larger yields of the usual crops can be obtained, 
and, if so, at what profit and in what way. Such experi- 
mentation calls for a study of soils and fertilizers, of seed 
and seed-selection; it demands a careful accounting of 
time, labor, machinery, and supplies ; and, if it is to be of 
the fullest practical value, it will involve a study of market- 
ing and a consideration of the value of the product both 
as food for home consumption and as a money crop. 

The school -farm, then, should aim to reproduce in 
miniature the agricultural activities of the community. It 
need not, and should not, be of extended acreage; neither 
should, the crops produced upon it be on a large area. Its 
primary purpose is not to supply crops for market, but to 

80 



THE WIDENING OUTLOOK 

provide the opportunity to raise enough crops of each 
kind to demonstrate their value to the community and to 
give the boys and girls at least an elementary training 
in farm-accounting and management, and in the funda- 
mental principles of cooperative marketing. A large 
farm with elaborate equipment is not only unnecessary, 
but of extremely problematic value. 

The only essential difference between the educational 
uses of the school-garden and the school-farm is that the 
one is suitable for the small children and looks to the im- 
provement of the home-garden, while the other is suitable 
for the older boys and girls and looks to the improvement of 
the home-farm. To make the entire community the school- 
yard; to base the course of study upon the every-day 
activities of the community and the normal experiences of 
the children; to make the educative processes work 
through the processes of every-day life; to untether the 
children; to keep reaching out until every child feels the 
guiding touch of a living, sympathetic hand — this is the 
problem, this the tendency. 

It is this tendency that has produced not only the 
school-garden and school-farm, but also the agricultural 
high schools and the farm-schools that are striving to 
carry opportunities for practical training to the children 
who are isolated. These schools have assum-cd various 
forms and are variously known as congressional-district, 
county, and township agricultural schools. In some of 
them agriculture and domestic science are taught exclu- 
sively; in some, agriculture and domestic science hardly 
escape the academic atmosphere of the cultural tradition. 
But most of them are alike in one essential thing — the 
majority of the children who attend them must leave home 
and board at or near the school in order to get the benefit 
of their training, unless, indeed, the entire family, as not 
infrequently happens, abandons the farm for the sake 
of the children's education. The question accordingly 
7 8i 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

arises: Do these schools meet the demand for training in 
agriculture and domestic science? Do they reach and 
train all the children who need training? 

In certain localities it may be necessary to establish 
farm boarding-schools for the older boys and girls, and 
to have a large acreage, not only for all-aroimd practice, but 
also to enable those who need to do so to work their 
way through school. There are some boys and girls who 
will have no other place in which to get a training in farm 
and household management. In some localities such 
schools have already been established, and many of them 
are proving extremely useful because they are offering 
the only opportunities for practical training available to 
their students. Certainly, however, it is not best to adopt 
a general policy that will require any large numbers of boys 
and girls from ten to sixteen years of age to go off to a 
boarding-school in order to get even an elementary train- 
ing in practical gardening, horticulture, dairying, sewing, 
cooking, and general agriculture. There are vast num- 
bers of children who need this training and who cannot 
leave home, and vast numbers who should not leave home. 
To leave them out of the school program is to leave the 
school program incomplete. They must be considered. 
To wait for time to cure the trouble does not cure it for 
the boys and girls who need the training now. They can- 
not wait. Their opportunity is now or never. A policy 
of waiting is fatal to efficient citizenship. How can these 
children be reached? In answering this question it is 
necessary to consider the most recent step in the develop- 
ment of agricultural education — the Farmers' Cooperative 
Demonstration Work. 

The complete school program must not only provide 
an educational scheme that will concentrate the chil- 
dren's activities upon the materials of community life, but 
it must also see that this educational scheme enables the 
rural children, as citizens in the making, to realize through 

82 



THE WIDENING OUTLOOK 

their own efforts, properly directed, the economic value 
of one important phase of their efficient citizenship — 
namely, their efficiency as producers on a commercial 
basis. 

It should go ftirther than this: it should shape its 
educational scheme so that it can and will, either through 
its own resources or in cooperation with other forces, show 
the adults of the community how they may become more 
efficient producers. For education should reach the en- 
tire community, and it is even truer of the adults than 
of the children that a vast number of them cannot leave 
home; that a vast number of them will not leave; and 
that a vast number of them should not leave home 
to get needed instruction. Education is a matter of life 
for life, not a matter of childhood for childhood. And it 
is only a tradition that leaves the adult out of considera- 
tion in the school program. How can the adiilts be 
reached? As has already been pointed out, notwithstand- 
ing the agricultural colleges and their bulletins, circulars, 
demonstration-trains, movable schools, and other indis- 
pensable devices; notwithstanding the agricultural high 
schools and the farm - schools ; notwithstanding the de- 
partments of agriculture and experiment stations, only a 
fraction of those who are already farming go away from 
home to learn better farming, or read the bulletins, or at- 
tend the institutes and movable schools, while only an 
infinitesimal fraction of the children who are to be farmers 
go away from home to learn agriculture. 

One of the tmpalatable and discouraging facts of life is 
that very few people know how to follow directions given 
through formal talks or through print. Very few teachers 
realize how seriously true this statement is. Another 
equally discouraging fact is that very few people know 
how to give directions; the tendency is to make them too 
general to be of practical value. 

One trouble in giving directions is that it is impossible 

S3 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

to go into necessary details before a large group. More- 
over, the farmers who know least about farming are, as a 
rule, very backward about asking questions in a crowd. 
There is no more sensitive class of people in the world than 
those who live and work in the country. Their isolation 
accentuates their shyness. If present, they may listen; 
and if some one happens to ask a question they are puz- 
zled about they may be helped. But the important ques- 
tion is rarely asked; every one in the meeting usually keeps 
quiet. Teachers who have ''mixed" with country people 
know this; they know, too, that oftentimes it is some 
seemingly insignificant point in a problem about farming 
that puzzles a large number of those who need help most. 
And in this one problem there may be six different things 
seemingly insignificant to the instructor that are puzzling 
six different men. 

Take, for example, the question of good seed. Not one 
farmer in ten can tell good seed from poor, unless the con- 
trast is glaring. And "teUing" him the difference helps 
very little. He must be shown individually and made 
to take seed and test it in the presence of his instructor. 
Otherwise he takes seed on faith, as probably 90 per cent. 
of the farmers do. Under our present industrial system 
this is not **good business" — ^for the purchaser. 

It is too often overlooked that adults who have done a 
certain thing a certain way for a long time have much 
more difficulty in changing that way than children 
would have. Why is this? The answer of course is that 
the adult has acquired a habit. "It is hard to teach an 
old dog new tricks." It is much easier to bend a young 
sapling than an old tree; it is much easier to shape a child 
than an old person. After a certain age the faculties of 
body and mind become static. There results what may 
be called the "fixed type." 

It was a recognition of the fact that the large majority 
of farmers do not attend an agricultural college or school; 

34 



THE WIDENING OUTLOOK 

that a large majority of them do not read biilletins and 
circulars, and do not follow them when read ; that a large 
majority do not attend institutes and movable schools; 
that a large majority of people, even if willing, do not 
know how to follow instructions at a distance; that there 
are about as many puzzles in one problem as there are 
minds working on it; that it is an exceedingly difficult 
thing to persuade a man that his way of doing a thing is 
wrong, and that even if convinced he is always helpless to 
change without the personal, present help of his instructor; 
that often he will keep silent to his own hurt — ^it was a 
recognition of these facts that led a few men some years 
ago to launch in a large way through the United States 
Department of Agriculture the plan known as the Farmers' 
Cooperative Demonstration Work for teaching adults and 
boys and girls how to farm satisfactorily and how to man- 
age their farms, their homes, and their gardens to their own 
greater advantage and the greater advantage of the 
nation. 



VI 

COOPERATIVE DEMONSTRATION WORK 

THE thing had been done thousands of times. When 
Neighbor Brown, having "learned a thing or two," 
told Neighbor Jones that his way of working com wouldn't 
bring the best crop there was quite a discussion. But 
finally when Brown's crop beat Jones's, Jones began to 
think. The next year Jones asked Brown a good many 
questions, and concluded to try Brown's plan. But habit 
was strong in Jones — habits in farmers are as hard and 
strong as their muscles — and in several little particulars 
Jones varied from Brown's directions, forgetting that it 
was the little foxes that spoiled the vines. And the crop 
didn't ''pan out." Jones ''knew that thing was all non- 
sense, anyhow"; he "had heard that college feller talk 
that way at the institute," and had forgotten all that was 
said before he got home. But when Brown went over 
and looked at Jones's crop he put his finger on the "little 
particulars" in which Jones had followed habit instead 
of following directions. Jones wondered how Brown 
knew. 

The next year Brown went over at Jones's invita- 
tion and showed Jones how to plow. Jones had thought 
up to that time that anybody could plow. Brown made 
Jones go over his land with harrow and drag until Jones 
swore the whole six acres would blow away the first time 
a stiff wind came along. Then Brown looked at Jones's 
seed-corn. "This corn won't do for planting!" Jones 



DEMONSTRATION WORK 

thought Brown must be crazy, but he only asked, "Why?" 
''It's rat-eaten, and it is not prolific, anyway." And 
Brown explained, "Don't you know there are 'runty' 
seed and 'blooded' seed?" Brown went to the corn- 
house with Jones and did the best he could in the pile. 
And as the crop progressed Brown made Jones go over 
it and keep the land finely mulched. Jones had his 
doubts still, but, anxious as he was to say " I told you so," 
his pocket nerve had twinges and made him prefer the 
prospect of a good stiff crop to the vindication of a stiff 
pride. Jones made twice the crop that year that he had 
ever made before, and it was an average year. Having 
found out that a thirst for good crops must be translated 
into a thirst for knowledge, Jones soon discovered that 
what he thought was worn-out land on his farm was 
really worn-out ideas in his head. So he made Brown 
come over and show him about each crop, until he got the 
"hang" of it. And that was "demonstration work." 

Then a newspaper man came along and "wrote up 
Jones"; fifty thousand people read the head-lines, and of 
that number twenty thousand read the article. Ten 
thousand of these forgot it; seven thousand didn't 
believe it at all ; twenty-five himdred thought it might be 
so on Jones's land, but that "it wouldn't work on theirs." 
Four himdred discussed it with their neighbors, and so 
many opinions were offered, different from the article, 
that they gave up the idea of trying. Ninety-five tried 
the plan, with "variations," and made very little improve- 
ment, and at once declared the whole thing a fake. Five 
of the readers, in five counties, followed directions accu- 
rately and succeeded. 

In 1906 the "cooperative demonstration work" was 
begtm in a small way in Mississippi. Experience had 
shown that the only sure method of getting Jones to 
follow Brown was to send a Brown to work with every 
Jones in Jones's own field. Through an agreement 

87 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

reached between the United States Secretary of Agricul- 
ture and the General Education Board of New York City 
Dr. Seaman A. Knapp, who had spent most of his life 
in Iowa, and who was at that time in the United States 
Department of Agriculture, was detailed to take charge 
of the Browns. Dr. Knapp, during many years devoted 
to farming in Louisiana, had been the Brown to the 
Joneses of his community, and had shown them how by 
simple methods they might get the maximum of produc- 
tion for the time, money, and energy they put into their 
work. He now had his opportunity to make the entire 
South his community — and he did so. He multiplied 
himself by employing demonstration agents in the coun- 
ties of the South to offer to " show " any farmer that wished 
to be shown. In 1908 the work had spread to seven 
states. It is now going on in fourteen states, with ap- 
proximately nine hundred demonstration agents and one 
hundred and ten thousand demonstrators, or Browns, 
working under directions laid down by Dr. Knapp. 

These demonstration agents try to visit the farmers 
on an average of once a month. They go upon the farms 
of those desiring advice and show them how to raise com, 
grass, and cotton; how to plow and subsoil; how to har- 
row and drag; how to clean the land; how to fertilize 
with crops and other good fertilizers; how to select seed; 
how to rotate ; how to make the most of what they have ; 
how to start in such a small way, if necessary, that the 
farmer with no horse, or with only one horse or mtile or 
ox, and a small run-down farm can get on his feet by his 
own efforts if he carefully follows directions. 

The strength of the demonstration work as conducted 
under Dr. KJnapp's instructions lies in his recognition of the 
absolute necessity of Brown going on Jones's farm at regular 
intervals to advise Jones and to show Jones, if Jones shows 
any desire to have Brown come; in his insistence that 
Brown is a very busy man, with many to advise and show, 

88 



DEMONSTRATION WORK 

and that unless Jones agrees to follow directions implicitly 
he need not apply; on his insistence that Brown should 
start with Jones exactly where Jones is, and not where 
Jones ought to be — ^in other words, if Jones has a four- 
room cabin, one wife and nine children, one twenty-two- 
year-old-mule, one plow, one wagon, ten acres of rented 
land, one large unpaid bill at the store, one heart full of 
despair, one set of harness consisting of three parts 
leather, two parts strings, and one part cotton rope, then 
Brown is not to tell Jones how well Jones could do if only 
Jones had an automobile income, but he is to show Jones 
how, with Jones's present assets at home and liability at 
the store, he, Jones, can make from 50 to 200 per cent, 
larger crop. 

Hundreds of thousands of acres of land have been 
transformed from barrenness to fertility; land that had 
been thought capable of bringing, and was bringing, only 
one-quarter to one-half bale of cotton to the acre is now 
bringing two bales; a ten, fifteen, twenty, and forty 
bushel crop of corn to the acre has jumped to thirty, 
fifty, sixty, eighty, a hundred and twenty-five, and even 
a hundred and fifty bushel crop; one-half -ton-to-the-acre 
grass has jumped to four, five, and six tons to the acre; 
land thought incapable of bringing alfalfa now brings four, 
five, and six tons per acre. The whole movement sounds 
unbelievable; it has come so suddenly, it is so full of 
possibilities, and yet so simple, that only those who have 
seen the transformation following in its wake can grasp 
the full significance of it. Hope has sprtmg up in the 
place of despair, poverty in many cases has come to 
independence, a hand-to-mouth existence to comfort, com- 
fort to riches. 

And with rare wisdom Dr. Knapp instilled into the 
hearts and heads of the demonstration agents that they 
must encourage the raising at home of more vegetables, 
more poultry and eggs, more meat, and better stock, 

89 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

and that they must show how these things can be gradu- 
ally acquired. ''Tell a farmer he needs better fencing and 
a better house," he once said, **and he will probably resent 
it. But show him first how to make bigger crops, and 
after that he will adopt almost any suggestion you make." 

A few illustrations will in some measure indicate the 
transformation that is following the demonstration work. 

A recent report shows that in one state where the 
average yield of corn per acre was i8 bushels, i,6oo farmers 
under the demonstration method averaged 46.9 bushels 
per acre. Twenty-two negroes in one county in another 
state averaged 64.8 bushels, where the state average was 
19 bushels. With a state average of 609 pounds of seed- 
cotton per acre 60 negro farmers in one state produced 
1,856.5 pounds per acre. In another state, where the 
state average was 732 pounds of seed-cotton per acre, 
the average for all the farmers working under demonstra- 
tion methods was 1,510 pounds. In yet another, where 
the average was 861 pounds of seed-cotton per acre, 131 
farmers guided by demonstration agents averaged 2,100 
pounds. The results of Brown's work with Jones on 
Jones's farm are strikingly shown by contrasting the 
average yield of com per acre for the state and the average 
yield for all the demonstration farmers in the same state. 

Avprnpp fnr Average for 

One state 16 39-2 

Another state 18 46.3 

" " 18.2 39.2 

" " 18.4 42.6 

^' 24 41-9 

The spirit and method of the demonstration agents — 
which is increasingly the spirit and method of the most 
successful teachers in the rural school — ^is delightfully re- 
vealed in a letter written by Mr. B , a demonstration 

90 



DEMONSTRATION WORK 

agent in a Southern state. The letter in part runs as 
follows: 

You ask for information with reference to the demonstration 

work in P County, the names of a few farmers who have 

signally prospered thereby, their financial status caused by 
following such work, etc. 

To begin with, I would call your attention to Mr. J. T , of 

, R, F. D., No. 7, a man with whom I became acquainted 

in this work in the fall of 1909, something Hke a year after this 
work was assigned me. I was traveling along the road, and 
while meditating over the vast possibilities of the work my eyes 
suddenly fell upon an old man working in a field which skirted 
the road. He, two sons, and a daughter were picking cotton 
in a worn-out field. Stopping and inquiring with reference to 
his yield per acre, I ascertained it to have been one-quarter 
bale of cotton. I asked the older son, who approached my 
buggy, thinking I was a book or medicine agent, if his father 
would like to make larger yields and more profit on his farm. 
He said, "We would Hke to make more, but our land is so poor 
that we have to plant and cultivate many acres even for a 
small crop." I informed him that I was the government 
demonstration agent, and would call on them later and get 
them to do demonstration work for the year 19 10. Giving 
me a dry smile indicative of doubt, and peering at me as though 
he considered me a fit subject for an insane asylum, he managed 
to bid me good day. Several weeks later I called again and 
found the old gentleman in the back of his field clearing land, 
which he considered necessary year after year in order to have 
a few fresh acres that would produce sufficiently to supply his 
family with food and clothing. After giving him my name and 
passing some compliments on the good work he and the boys 
were doing, I told him I had come to see if he would let me 
help him produce more on the land he claimed to be worn out. 
His answer was that he was growing all the land would produce, 
that he had heard that I was making big crops on my place, 
but that his land was poor and would not make big crops. He 
said he would show me some of his best land, and if I thought 
I could select an acre or two that would make anything worth 

. 91 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

while he would try it, provided it would not cost him anything 
for my services. I informed him that I was employed and paid 
by the government and was not permitted to charge for my 
services, and that the cost would be nothing. It being late in 
the afternoon, he asked me to spend the night with him, which 
invitation I readily accepted, as I was seventeen miles from home. 

We reached his quiet home, which was located about two 
hundred yards from the public road. After he had fed his stock, 
which, by the way, consisted of two small, goatlike mules, on 
com and fodder which were grown on his impoverished farm 
from a poorly selected variety of seed, we repaired to the house. 
All the while I had been telling him how he could improve his 
corn by getting tested seed, and keeping it selected year after 
year at gathering-time. I asked him if he had a number of 
blooded hogs and cows from which to obtain meat, lard, milk, 
and butter for his family. He told me that he had no hogs, 
that the cholera had killed them; that those which he had 
owned were not thoroughbred, and he had only one cow, and 
that she gave very little milk. 

The family consisted of the old gentleman, his wife, three 
sons, two daughters, and a maiden sister to his wife. Each face 
beamed with honesty. As I saw it and felt it, only one thing was 
lacking to make them as happy as people may hope to be. 

We talked freely of the work I had done on my farm along 

improved lines, and I assured Mr. that he could do equally 

as well as I had done; that my farm was as poor as his when I 
began the work; and that the past year others had gotten won- 
derful results and derived inestimable benefits by closely follow- 
ing the teachings of the demonstration work. During the con- 
versation I realized that the whole family, especially the boys, 
were intensely interested. We arose early the following morn- 
ing, partook of a good breakfast, after which we walked over 
his lands. I found that he had no fences, and that his ground 
and everything connected therewith was in a rather poor condi- 
tion to make much show in demonstration work. Finally he 
pointed out a splendid spot of fresh land which he considered 
suitable for making a good yield of corn. I told him that it was 
especially needful that he begin to improve his old, poor land 
in order that he might make profitable crops thereon. Eventu- 

92 



DEMONSTRATION WORK 

ally he agreed to my selecting the place for demonstration. I 
selected a two-acre plot between the road and his home. He 
told me that he had tried to build up that land with cotton-seed 
and manure, and that he had not been able to gather more than 
one-quarter of a bale of cotton or eight or ten bushels of corn 
per acre, and that he had seen it planted to corn and culti- 
vated well, and it made absolutely nothing. "If that is the 
chance to do demonstration work I'd rather not go into it, for 
it will turn out a complete failure," he said. I told him that 
all I would ask of him would be to prepare, fertilize, and cultivate 
as I would instruct, and if he did not get satisfactory results 
he might charge the failure to me. So, taking my selection of 
ground, he took up the demonstration work. Instructions in 
regard to preparation of ground were given and received with 
interest, and soon I was driving away to return the next month. 

On returning one month later, Mr. informed me that 

the plot had been broken according to instructions. 

As I had told him he could raise thoroughbred hogs and cattle 
at approximately the same cost that he could razor-back or 
scrub stock, he lost no time in securing some Berkshire hogs and 
Jersey cows. At the present time he has all of his farm, with the 
exception of four acres, fenced with hog or woven wire. 

Commencing the first year, I visited him to plant peanuts, cow- 
peas, velvet-beans, sweet-potatoes, and sugar-cane; he has had 
plenty for home use, with many things for the market. He has 
sold many pairs of fine pigs, besides meat, peanuts, sweet -pota- 
toes, syrup, and other things raised on his farm. 

I continued to visit this demonstrator once a month; he and 
his sons, especially the younger one, a boy of unusual intelligence, 
receiving instructions with much eagerness. The old gentleman, 
knowing that the young man saw no future for himself on this 
impoverished land, and having spoken of getting him a position 
in some town or on a railroad, told him he might have the 
demonstration com, and that he wanted him to pay close atten- 
tion to Mr. B and see if he could not learn to farm as he 

did. The corn was cultivated strictly according to instructions, 
sprouted well, and grew vigorously. When gathering-time came 

Mr. called in his neighbors to see it, every one being eager 

to know just what the yield would be. He arranged to make 

93 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

an accurate measurement both of the land and corn, and it was 
found that his yield was fifty-two and one-half bushels per acre. 
Each one present was surprised to see so much corn gathered 
from land of this character at such little cost, which was twenty- 
eight cents per bushel — land rent, fertiHzer, and labor considered 
— and compared the cost of producing corn by the demonstration 
method with the old method, and after doing so found that the 
old way of producing corn on the same kind of land had cost 
one dollar and forty cents per bushel. Every one present was 
convinced that he himself had not only lost money on his present 
crop, but had been losing year after year for many years. 

The following year the same acre was taken in preparation for 
cotton as had been taken for corn the previous year. All of his 
corn-land was prepared and worked on demonstration methods. 
This being a dry year, and not so good for corn, the yield over the 
entire field was forty bushels per acre at a very slight increase 
in cost. The cotton was carefully weighed, and his yield was 
sixteen hundred pounds seed-cotton per acre, where he had gath- 
ered only four hundred pounds per acre as he had been farming. 

Everything was changed from dull prospects, with no hope for 
the future, to a future of glorious promise. While these demon- 
strations were going on Mr. made as much improvement 

on other Hnes of farming. His older son has purchased land, 
horse and buggy, and is doing splendid demonstration work on 
his farm. The old gentleman has bought two large mules, and 
the younger son has a new buggy in which to glide about over 
our good roads, and is satisfied with farming and farm life. 
The young ladies no longer work in the fields; instead, they are 
putting their hands to duties around the home, making flowers 
grow and otherwise beautifying and making pleasant the place 
where they live and sleep, and the young children have now what 
may be termed their true school-days. 

On one of my visits, finding Mr. feeling good over a 

bright future which stretched before him on account of the 
valuable lessons learned from the demonstration agent, he said: 

''Mr. B , I will tell you now what I thought, and told the 

boys when you first came around to get us to try your method 
of farming. I knew we had worked our crops good, and that 
I got better crops some years than we did others on account 

94 



DEMONSTRATION WORK 

of seasons, so I told my boys that you did not know anything 
about our land, and knew you would make a failure on our 
farm, but I would do as you said just to show you that I knew all 
about my farm. I did not doubt your making big crops on your 
farm, but I thought I knew you would fail on mine. I was of 
good mind not to have anything to do with it when you came 
and told me that you would take that old land out there on the 
road for a demonstration plot. But I thought I would not be 
curious, as you had been kind enough to come away over here 
to see me. We laughed about how you would fail on that 
poor old field. I told my son I wanted him to work it just like 
you said, so that you could attach no blame to us for the failure 
that was certain. I had seen it manured better than you ad- 
vised, and it made hardly ten bushels per acre, and when you said 
we ought to produce forty or fifty bushels we knew you would 
be disappointed. But I see now that we were the ones who were 
fooled. If I had known this years ago, how much better off 
I could have been! I have worked long and hard, and my 
family has labored with me, and I have just learned the first 
principles of farming." 

A wonderful improvement is seen along all lines — ^better 
schools, a veritable network of telephones, graded roads, better 
hogs and stock. There are about one hundred and forty 
demonstration farms in P County, all of which furnish ex- 
amples similar to that set forth above. Volumes might be 
written to exemplify the efficacy of the work, and it is growing 
day by day, those testing it feeling that they have received a 
new lease on life. There are hundreds of farmers who have 
not directly taken up the work with the agent, yet the success 
of their neighbors has constrained them to follow the method, 
and the result is wonderful. The rural districts may be said to 
be " blossoming as the rose." 

But if the United States Department of Agrictdture, 
cooperating with certain states and with certain counties 
in those states, appoints demonstration agents to teach 
agriculture to the adults on their farms, why cannot this 
be made a part of the school program and the work be 
done through one or more central schools? Why one 

95 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

teacher of agriculture in the schools for boys and an- 
other teacher of agriculture for men outside the school 
and no connection between the two? 

After starting with the adult farmers and getting the 
demonstration work under way for them, Dr. Kaapp 
encouraged the plan of organizing boys' com clubs. He 
said that the attention of the boys was being directed 
away from the farm. His plan was to have each boy 
in the clubs take one acre and, under plain, simply told 
directions sent out from Washington and followed up by 
the demonstration agents, prepare it, plant it to corn, and 
cultivate the crop. Boys ten years old and up were 
eligible. The acre was to be on the parents' farm, and 
the crop was to belong to the boy. The boy was to agree 
to follow directions, and the father was to agree not to 
interfere at any time with these directions. 

The movement swept the South. Over seventy-five 
thousand boys are in these clubs. In addition to corn, 
they have become interested in garden work, cotton, grass, 
pigs, poultry, and dairy products. The school-fairs in the 
South are the annual features of the counties. Jerry 
Moore, of South Carolina, who raised two hundred and 
twenty-eight bushels of corn on his acre, has become so 
famous that a boy in the Sunday-school, the son of a 
Baptist minister, when asked a question about Jeremiah, 
said he knew very little about Jeremiah, but he knew all 
about Jerry Moore! Thousands of corn-boys in the 
South have started bank-accounts; many are helping 
their fathers and mothers out of debt; and the work, so 
far from interfering with their studies, has given them 
more interest in these by showing them the practical 
application of school training. 

On farms where both the fathers and sons have taken 
the demonstration work the boys have made a better show- 
ing than their fathers because they follow directions more 
closely. And thousands of fathers have been converted 

96 



DEMONSTRATION WORK 

to the new methods by the success of their boys. In cases 
where the fathers have sneered at the ** book-farming," 
or the new methods pursued by the boys, the glaring 
contrast between the old-method father and the new- 
method son has been a sufficient object-lesson. In 1910 
the 100 boys making the highest yields totaled 13,370 
bushels on their 100 acres. In 19 11 the 100 boys making 
the highest yields totaled 13,748 on their 100 acres. In 
19 10 one boy exceeded 200 bushels on his acre; in 191 1 
seven boys exceeded this production. 

In one state 52 boys got over 100 bushels each at a cost 
of 30 cents a bushel; and 21 boys got 126 bushels each at a 
cost of 23 cents a bushel. In another state 25 boys 
averaged 11 1.6 bushels at 19.7 cents; the average for all 
farmers in the state was 18 bushels. In another state 65 
boys averaged 109.9 bushels at 25 cents; the average in 
the state was 19 bushels. In another state 20 boys 
averaged 140.6 bushels at 23 cents; the average in the 
state was 19 bushels. In another state 15 boys averaged 
127.6 bushels at 28 cents; the average in the state was 
26.8 bushels. 

Another state averaged 24 bushels: the adult demon- 
strators averaged 41.9; the boys averaged 61.2 bushels. 
In one county where a local organization employed a 
demonstration agent one boy raised 88 bushels of potatoes 
on a quarter of an acre, where his father got 58 bushels. 
At Appomattox Court House, Virginia, 18 boys, attend- 
ing a school situated one mile from where Lee surrend- 
ered to Grant, averaged 84 bushels of com per acre, 
one boy making 134 bushels. Truly, peace hath its vic- 
tories no less renowned than war! 

One of the discoveries made by the demonstration 
agents was the meanest man thus far recorded in American 
history. He refused to let his son have an acre of his 
land, but finally told him he could have an acre if he would 
grub it. The little fellow grubbed the acre, but his father 
8 97 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

then informed him that he would have to grub another, 
as he needed the first acre himself. The little fellow then 
grubbed another, and then plowed it. The demonstration 
agent had told the boy exactly how to plow it, but he had 
never seen any plowing done that way. The agent 
brought his own team ten miles and helped the boy plow 
the acre just right. Then, as the father refused to let 
the boy have any manure for the acre, the agent "went 
good" for the price. The father averaged lo bushels per 
acre on his corn that year, and the boy made 80 bushels 
on his acre. 

After the adult demonstration work and the boys' 
demonstration work got under way, the girls' garden work 
was started. The great desire of the girls to have a 
chance like their brothers brought a prompt response 
from them when it was decided to teach them how to 
raise and can vegetables at home. The work started in 
1910. Inigii there were 3 , 000 members, and in 1 9 1 2 there 
were 25,000 members in the girls' garden and canning 
clubs. Dr. Knapp decided to have each member work 
one-tenth of an acre at home, with tomatoes as the 
principal crop at first. 

The girls' clubs have been officially called ''Canning 
and Poultry Clubs," because it is the intention to add the 
raising of poultry to the work of the clubs. The girls' 
garden work is done mainly through women demonstra- 
tion agents. Portable canning outfits, convenient in size, 
are provided, varying in price from $6.50 to $12. All 
canning is done under the direction of the agent, and most 
of it is done out-of-doors in the most thorough and up-to- 
date manner. The goods rank very high on the market 
in every way. One girl on one-tenth of an acre, at a cost 
of $41.10, put up 950 cans of tomatoes, besides furnishing 
to the home $2 1.50 worth of raw tomatoes and selling $2.50 
worth. Another girl put up 1,008 cans at a cost of 
$33-07, and sold the output for $110.80, making a net 

98 



DEMONSTRATION WORK 

profit of $77-73. Another cleared $60.51, and another 
$55.55. Another girl put up 1,023 cans, part of which 
helped the family through the winter, and sold all the 
rest. In one state 37 girls averaged $25.42 net; in another 
19 girls averaged $17.60 net; in another 28 girls averaged 
$22.90 net. 

One farmer advised his little daughter not to stake up her 
tomatoes, as he had always gotten a good crop without it. 
She took the advice of the agent and raised three times as 
many as her father. Another little girl said, **I enrolled 
as a club member because I wanted to do something by 
myself and have some money of my own." 

And how easy it is to evolve a course of study from 
such activities. Here is an example : 

The fifth -grade girls have done some preserving for Mrs. 
Ferguson. She bought ^3 btr. of peaches at $1.20 per bu., 12 lbs. 
sugar at $.07 >^ per lb., and $.05 worth of cloves. The labor 
was valued at $1.50. Eight quarts of preserves were made. 
The preserves are worth $.60 per qt. Did Mrs. Ferguson gain 
or lose in having the peaches preserved? 

$1.20 cost of I bu. of peaches 

% bu. =what was bought 

% of $i.2o=$.8o=:cost of % bu. 

I lb. of sugar cost $.07^^ 
12 lbs. cost 12 X$.o7>^ = $.9o 
$ .80 cost of peaches $ .60 value of i qt. of preserves 

.90 " " sugar 8 

.05 '' '' cloves 

1.50 for labor $4.80 '' ''8qts." ** 



.25 total expenses 

$4.80 value of preserves 
3.25 cost of making them 



>i.5S gain 

99 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

Already this next step in the reconstruction of rural life 
has attracted not only national but international atten- 
tion. Bills are pending in Congress to introduce coopera- 
tive demonstration work into every state in the Union. 
The unique value of the demonstration method lies in the 
fact that it aims not so much to do something for the 
farmer, but to show him on his own farm how he may do 
something for himself. The psychology of the demonstra- 
tion method is sound because it takes the farmer with all 
his whims, his prejudices, his fixed habits and suspicions 
— takes him just as he is and leads him by example rather 
than by precept. If he gets out of a rut he must do his 
own climbing; but he is shown how to climb. The ideal 
demonstration agent is the man who knows rural human 
nature and the fundamental principles and practices of 
good farming. 

From the beginning of the cooperative demonstration 
work those who have been intrusted with its direction 
have very properly emphasized the need and possibilities 
of increased production. Dr. Seaman A. Knapp, who 
had come from New York State and who had later done 
pioneer work at the Iowa State College of Agriculture, was 
doing demonstration on his own account in his adopted 
home in Louisiana at the time when his example contrib- 
uted to the establishment of the new division in the United 
States Department of Agriculture, of which he was the 
first head. For this and other reasons the beginnings of 
demonstration work on a large scale were made in the 
South, and in that section of our common country the 
pressing need was for increased production. That the 
need for increased production is not confined to the South, 
however, is strikingly shown by the agricultural statistics 
of the last census and by the significant fact that many of 
the most prosperous sections of our foremost agricultural 
states, such as Iowa and Missouri and Illinois, are calling 
for demonstration agents to help them to increase the 

1 00 



DEMONSTRATION WORK 

production on their farms. Nowhere in the United States 
has production reached even an approximate maximum. 
At the same time there are many milHons among our 
working population who are not securing enough of the 
necessaries of life to keep them either in efficiency or 
health. For many years to come it will be necessary to 
continue the emphasis upon increased production. 

And yet, even at the beginning of this great movement 
to increase production through a more efficient education, 
the question is being asked: Will not increased production 
ultimately work to the injury of the producers by over- 
supplying the market and so breaking down prices? This 
same question has been raised for decades and centuries, 
whenever improved methods have increased the supply of 
any commodity. Fortunately, time has established the 
soundness of the obvious answer: The danger is not in 
oversupply, but in underconsumption. The develop- 
ment of higher standards of living, which is civilization, 
demands not only increased production, but more ade- 
quate methods of distribution. We have seen fruit rotting 
in heaps on the ground while in a neighboring city, hardly 
fourteen miles away, himdreds and thousands of families 
were unable to pay the price of single pieces of the same 
fruit. The farmer to-day receives much less than half of 
the price paid by the ultimate consumer. The financial 
distance — ^not the geographical distance — between pro- 
ducer and consumer is too great. Middlemen are of course 
necessary, but at present there are too many middlemen. 
And the crude methods of transportation, the even cruder 
methods of preparing the produce for market, and the 
almost complete lack of cooperation among producers in 
almost all sections of the country enable the middlemen 
to take profits not only from the middle, but from both 
ends. Only business cooperation, which means organiza- 
tion on scientific business lines by producers for the 
common benefit, will remedy the evils of crude, un- 

lOI 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

scientific, and wasteful methods of distribution. One of 
the great problems confronting the workers in rural 
education is that of teaching the farmers how to increase 
their incomes while increasing and improving their product. 
Under present conditions the unorganized farmers buy at 
the maximum rate and sell at the minimum, although the 
consumer derives no benefit from the low price at which 
the farmer sells. 

In a certain agricultural school the teacher of agriculture 
was made United States demonstration agent for the 
county in which the school was situated. Besides instruct- 
ing the boys at the school and on the school-farm, it was 
his business to work with the boys and their fathers on 
their farms to increase production. The money crop in the 
county was potatoes, but while the teacher was able to help 
the individual farmers to increase their production, he was 
not able substantially to increase their incomes. The 
reason for this, he found upon investigation, was that each 
of the farmers was raising a different variety of potatoes, 
that they had no system of grading in preparing their 
product for market, and that they were therefore at the 
mercy of the local commission agents. By tact and pa- 
tience he induced the farmers who had joined the demon- 
stration clubs to fix upon one variety of potatoes, to agree 
in advance upon their acreage, and to follow his directions 
in the cultivation of the crop. At his suggestion the 
farmers appointed their own business agent to act with 
him in finding a market. Instead of producing odd lots, 
the farmers, through their cooperative agreement, pro- 
duced carload lots of a single variety that could be shipped 
at a given time directly to the ultimate market. Their 
product has won a reputation for excellence, and they are 
getting good prices before their potatoes are loaded on the 
cars. 

In this same way the demonstration agent induced the 
farmers to organize themselves into an association for 

I02 



DEMONSTRATION WORK 

the cooperative purchase of fertihzers, and he took pains 
to instruct them in the quaHties of the fertilizers they 
were ordering. For the first time in their Hves many of 
these farmers discovered that they had been buying a 
large amount of useless "filler" instead of real fertilizer, 
and that they had been paying the maximimi price. 
The saving through the cooperative buying of fertilizer in 
the first year amoimted to from 20 to 40 per cent, of their 
former outlay, while the increase in their receipts from 
their potatoes was equally great. The farmers found that 
through cooperation they were able to save both in buying 
and in selling. When a community of farmers has gone so 
far as this it does not take them long to look into the whole 
question of middlemen and individualistic production and 
buying. Cooperation means not only increased pro- 
duction, but better prices both to the producer and the 
consumer. 

Realizing that scientific marketing is an essential supple- 
ment to scientific production, the same forces that inaugu- 
rated the cooperative demonstration work have succeeded 
in securing the creation under the United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture of a bureau whose business it will be 
to gather information and to formulate plans for the 
cooperative organization of workers on the land. It 
will do for scientific distribution what the division of 
Farmers' Cooperative Demonstration Work has already 
done for scientific production. 



VII 

DEMONSTRATION WORK THROUGH THE RURAL SCHOOL 

AN extended notice has been given of extension and 
l\ demonstration work because they point to the inevi- 
table next-step in the evolution, redirection, and transfor- 
mation of the school program, the course of study, the daily 
program. The wide and rapid spread of boys' and girls' 
clubs throughout the nation is a sign of the times that the 
school authorities will ignore them at the risk of disaster to 
the public-school system, the country-school children, and 
the nation. Heretofore the **culturists" have excluded 
the "practical" things from the course of study; but the 
growth of the purely agricultural-domestic-science schools, 
which, going to the other extreme, are now excluding the 
so-called "cultural" studies, should show that they are 
now sufficiently powerful to "set up for themselves." 
There is no reason why the one should exclude the other. 
If the exclusion is to be kept up, the country is destined 
to have a system of schools as narrow and narrowing 
in one direction as they have heretofore been narrow and 
narrowing in the other. The child should get at the school 
and through the school everything that he needs for his 
normal growth as a citizen. While learning "culturally" 
the life of the race in general, he needs "practically" 
to learn the "life of the race" in Possum Hollow in 
particular. And because he comes from Possum Hollow 
it does not follow that he knows anything about its 
particular life or the conditions under which he must live 

104 



DEMONSTRATION WORK 

and make a living there. Physical contact and super- 
ficial familiarity are not the same thing as knowledge. If 
he does not learn this life, and learn how to improve it, 
and have aroused in him the desire to improve it, he will 
either stagnate in or leave Possum Hollow. A course 
of study so arranged as to cause the school to become an 
active emigration bureau may be cultural, but it never- 
theless depopulates the community or keeps it at a stand- 
still. It is often said that a ** practical" education is a 
bread-and-butter affair; that it destroys the finer spirit 
and vision of a people; and that **man cannot live by 
bread alone." It is undoubtedly true that without a 
vision the people will perish. It is also true that man 
cannot live by bread alone. But a man should not be 
trained to live on his own visions and on another man's 
bread. He should be so trained that he will be able to 
have both visions and provisions. 

To isolate the "cultural" studies in one school and the 
''practical" studies in another is a distinct menace to our 
democracy. Each needs and must have the contact 
with, the sympathy and the help of, the other. Our 
"practical" activities need to be permeated with idealism; 
our ideals need to be crystallized into concrete resiilts. 
The efforts to separate the two are based either on a desire 
to exploit labor or on effete class consciousness which 
desires to perpetuate class distinctions in industry. But 
in a democratic educational system, where the "cultural" 
and "practical" go hand in hand for the purpose, and the 
sole purpose, of producing efficient citizenship, there will 
be but two classes — the one including all efficient citizens, 
whatever their work; the other including all inefficient 
citizens, such as criminals, idlers, parasites, whatever 
their professions or occupations. 

In what way can the demonstration work be made a 
part of the rural-school work? In what way can the 
rural schools do demonstration work? John Munroe, of 

105 



THE WORK OF THE EURAL SCHOOL 

the Cokato, Minnesota, schools, has said that "all good 
school work is extension work," and he here uses the word 
extension in the sense of demonstration. By including 
demonstration work in its educational scheme the school 
program will have an abundance of material upon which to 
concentrate the physical, mental, and spiritual energies 
of the children, and it will also enable the children, as 
citizens in the making, to realize through their own 
efforts, properly directed, the economic value of one neces- 
sary phase of their efficient citizenship — their efficiency 
as producers on a commercial basis. Moreover, directly 
and in cooperation with other forces, it will make the school 
program an integral part of the community program, and 
by helping the grown-ups as well as the children it will 
make the education of the children an integral part of the 
education of the community 

"Demonstration" is the logical next-step by which to 
reach into every rural community and give every boy and 
girl who now has no such chance the opportunity to do 
the things they most need to do and most wish to do. It 
is one of the best ways yet devised to produce efficient 
citizens. And it is the method that "pays its own way" 
in poor communities as well as in rich, because it produces 
more than it costs. 

If the United States Department of Agriculttire can, 
in cooperation with a state, and with a county in a state, 
appoint a demonstration agent to teach agrioilture to the 
adults and boys in one county in the state, why cannot 
this be made a part of the school program and the work be 
done through one or more central schools in the coimty? 
If the United States Department of Agriculture can like- 
wise appoint a demonstration agent to teach gardening 
to the girls in that county, why cannot this be made a 
part of the school program, and the work be done through 
one or more central schools in the county? So far as the 
adult farmer and his wife are concerned, there is no 

iq6 




THE OLD 




AND THE NEW 



A Demonstration by The Boys' Pig Club of Caddo Parish, 

Louisiana 



DEMONSTRATION WORK 

reason why they cannot be reached on their farms and 
in their homes by the school agricultural instructor, or 
demonstration agent, and the school instructor in garden- 
ing and domestic science as readily as by a similar agent 
working independently of the school. Such agents or 
teachers can give to the great masses of our country 
people a new conception of the school as the center of 
constantly improving community conditions — the very 
heart that sends the enriched blood of economic and social 
improvement coursing into every avenue of the community 
life. In no other way can our school studies be so well 
linked with community activities, and a redirection be 
given the school program and courses of study. 

It has already been pointed out that a plan which 
forces boys and girls to leave their homes and board at 
school, or go without a training in the activities of every- 
day life, cannot be the ultimate plan for reaching the vast 
majority of our oncoming citizens, because, in the first 
place, the very large majority of them should not leave 
home, and, in the second place, the very large majority of 
them cannot leave home. And if it be said that the cost of 
building and maintaining enough such central schools to 
give to all the children an opportunity would be too great, 
the answer is that the costliest scheme is the one that 
does not reach all the children, for the neglect to do so 
spells disaster to the citizenship of a nation. Besides, it 
is not necessary to spend as much on bmlding and main- 
tenance as may at first seem necessary. A county 
agricultural school that costs ten thousand dollars a year to 
maintain and to which the boys and girls of a large part 
of the county must go as boarders if they go at all is much 
more costly than, for instance, four such schools in the 
county costing twenty-five thousand dollars, and to which 
all the larger boys and girls may go daily from their homes. 
For in the first instance not one in four of the boys and 
girls of the county is reached, while in the second in- 

107 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

stance all of them are reached. And if in the first instance 
one child is reached and four are not reached, the county 
agricultural school with boarding facilities is 80 per cent, 
deficient. The cost is not in the money, but in the 
neglect. The purpose of education is not to save money, 
but to save citizenship. Saving money to the neglect 
of citizenship means losing both. Making citizenship, 
however much it costs, is making both. The fear of the 
cost of several schools in a county that will reach every 
boy and girl in their homes arises from the tradition 
that all school- work must be done in the school, and is 
a matter of childhood and youth. The democratic view- 
point is that school- work must be done both in and through 
the school, and is a matter beginning with the childhood 
and extending throughout life. 

The experiments now being tried in several states to 
introduce the every-day work of the community into the 
school curriculum, to **link up" the school- work with the 
life-work of the community, sustain the views here ex- 
pressed. If anything has been proved by all this experi- 
mentation, it is that in exact proportion to the efforts 
of the school to utilize the normal activities of the com- 
munity as the materials upon which to set at work the 
normal activities of the children, has the course of study 
lost its deadening influence and unloosed the pent-up 
mental, physical, and social energies of the children; and 
in exact proportion to the efforts of the school to make 
education a matter of life for life, and to reach every 
human being in his home and on his place of living, has it 
succeeded in its one legitimate function of producing 
efficient citizenship. 

The Cokato, Minnesota, experiment has shown that 
there are in that community, about nine miles square, 
many boys and girls, men and women, who have not 
attended the usual type of school, but who, when it was 
announced that a short course would be opened, beginning 

108 



DEMONSTRATION WORK 

in the late fall and contintung into March, and that this 
course would be made to suit their needs, at once took 
advantage of this offer and attended the school. They 
are not required to be at the opening or to remain until 
the close of school. These pupils, ranging in age from 
thirteen to forty, do the necessary chores at home, then 
arrive at the school about ten-thirty, remain until about 
three, then go home and do the other necessary chores. 
While at school they are asked what they wish to learn 
— ^and they go right at it. They choose practical arith- 
metic, composition, spelling, reading, writing, civics, 
commercial law, farm accounting, agriculture, sewing, 
cooking, carpentry, blacksmithing. And each subject is 
full of purpose. The materials of study come from every- 
day life and conditions. The instruction points its finger 
to that home and that community as the place for its best 
application. The course of study is not made up for the 
applicants to fit themselves to it. It is made up on the 
demands and needs of the applicants. Too often school- 
work is merely mental — a mental gymnastic. But such 
work as this is both mental and fundamental. 

That there are hundreds of thousands of boys and girls 
and men and women in this nation who are in similar cir- 
cumstances will not be disputed. They must be reached, 
and reached now, if reached at aU. It is in seven cases 
out of ten their misfortime, not their fault, that they have 
not had the proper chance. The boarding-school will not 
touch them. The academic school, with an outlook to- 
ward the Middle Ages and farther back, will not touch 
them. " The short course is the most valuable part of our 
school-work," says Principal Munroe; ''the one hundred 
pupils last year ranged from thirteen to forty years of age, 
and they assimilated more material than an equal number 
of high-school pupils would have assimilated in nine 
months." George B. Alton, State Inspector of High 
Schools of Minnesota, well says that "the organization of 

109 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

from one to half a dozen such schools in each county — no 
distant day-dream — is far ahead of a sparse system of 
schools, such as one for each congressional district." 
And he might have added, "or one for each county." 

Thirteen smaller schools have associated themselves 
with the central school at Cokato to get the benefit of the 
industrial work done at the central school, by gaining 
access for the larger boys and girls, men and women, 
who can attend from the communities in which these 
schools are located. 

The agricultural instructor at Cokato has also interested 
himself in the activities of the community. He has held 
to Principal Munroe's statement that **good school- work 
is demonstration work." Not only has the school pro- 
gram included an educational scheme that enables the 
pupils to concentrate their activities upon the community 
activities, not only are the materials of study gathered by 
both teachers and pupils in their surveys of the community 
occupations, but the school program has a definite plan 
of farm demonstration. A part of its work is "showing" 
the farmers on their own farms, on condition that they 
wish to be shown and will follow directions. These farms 
are managed by short-course pupils who live on them. 
Records of work are kept, and these records are used at 
the school as a basis of the farm accotmting studied at the 
school. Improved and tested seed is furnished from the 
small school-farm. One short-course pupil found out 
from his studies and tests that there were fourteen cows 
on his farm that were not even self-supporting. The 
demonstrations include drainage, dairying, com, alfalfa, 
infusion of good stock, etc. 

The state of Minnesota, under the Putnam Act, gives 
state aid to the Cokato and associated schools on account 
of the teaching of agriculture, manual training, and 
domestic science in the central school. The demonstra- 
tion work conducted on the farms is not yet required as a 

no 



DEMONSTRATION WORK 

part of the duties of the school, but is recognized as an 
essential part of the complete school program. The 
testimony of bankers and business men at Cokato is that 
this school has more than paid its way by the increased 
production made possible and made actual by the school. 

Another example of demonstration work done by and 
through the school is found at Sparks, Maryland, where, 
in cooperation with the principal of the school, a large 
number of farmers are conducting experiments on their 
own farms and a large number of boys are cultivating 
com. Over one thousand farms are using the seed recom- 
mended by the school, and the increase in yield has been 
sufficient, to quote an enthusiast, "to pay for the entire 
cost of the school." The school has been instrimiental 
in establishing a creamery and founding the first cow- 
testing association in the state. Excellent work in seed- 
testing has proven of much benefit to the farmers. Spray- 
ing demonstrations on the farms have been most helpful. 
The school took a farmer's unproductive orchard and 
made it bring a big yield. 

An interesting feature of the school-work at Sparks is 
the graduating exercises, which are held out-of-doors. 
The program of 19 12 will give an indication of the work 
of the school: 

Sparks, Maryland 19 12 

PROGRAM 

The graduation exercises are intended to give expression to the 
work of the school in all its phases. Because much of the work 
is along practical lines a large part of the exercises are demon- 
strational in character. 

The graduation dresses were made in the regular sewing-classes 
of the school. The amphitheater, in which exercises are held and 
which seats fifteen hundred persons, was erected by the manual- 
training classes of the school. 

1. OVERTURE Kennedy's Orchestra 

2. PROCESSIONAL 

III 



[ . . . . Elizabeth Wilson 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

3. INVOCATION 

4. SONG Morning Hymn 

By John Cruger 

5. DEMONSTRATION OF AGRICULTURAL LESSONS 

Explanation by William Frederick Kauffman, Jr. 

Babcock Test C. F. Bruehl 

Acidity Test A. L. Parry 

Mixing Bordeaux R. R. Lord 

6. DEMONSTRATION OF COOKING METHODS WITH 

EGGS. Explanation by Nettie Parks 
Baked Custard 
Popovers 
Sponge Cake Ruth Young 

7. ORATION Country Culture 

By Russell Robbins Lord 

8. DEMONSTRATION OF HOME CHEMISTRY 

Explanation by Ida Chilcoat 
Determination of Copper in Peas . Elizabeth Wilson 
Determination of Glucose in Jelly. Eva Akehurst 
Determination of Textiles . . . Ruth Young 

9. SONG The Merry Heart 

By Luigi Denza 

10. DEMONSTRATION OF USES OF CARPENTRY TOOLS 

By Albert Lee Parry 

11. JUDGING THE DAIRY BREEDS 

(Illustrated with a Jersey Cow) 
By Charles Frank Bruehl 

12. SONG The Call of the Fields 

Words by Dean L. H. Bailey 
Cornell College of Agriculture 

13. ADDRESS By Hon. W. M. Hays 

Assistant Secretary of Agriculture 

14. SONG FROM "PIPPA PASSES" 

Words by Robert Browning 

15. PRESENTATION OF DIPLOMAS TO GRADUATES 

16. CHARGE TO THE GRADUATES 

17. SOPRANO SOLO Farewell Song 

18. SCHOOL SONG ........ Mother of Farms 

Words by the Senior Class, composed as a lesson 
in versification. Music by Miss Estelle Thompson 

19. RECESSIONAL 

112 



DEMONSTRATION WORK 

AT EIGHT O'CLOCK THERE WILL BE PRESENTED IN 
THE SCHOOL BUILDING 

"THE TAMING OF THE SHREW" 

Each year the English classes of the school produce one Shake- 
spearian play as a regular part of the required work. The manu- 
script was prepared in the school. The costumes of the period were 
designed and made in the sewing-classes. The three sets of scenery 
were prepared by the manual-training classes. 

The principal of a county agricultural high school 
in Mississippi in one session has done a good deal of 
extension and demonstration work. Besides having 
farmers' institutes at the school, he lectures to the farmers 
throughout the county, doctors their sick stock, helps 
them to select pure seed, and holds himself ready to advise 
any who wish to improve farm conditions. As hog 
cholera has been rife in the county, he has taught all the 
boys in the school how to prevent the disease by inoculat- 
ing the hogs with senmi. The state prepares the serum 
and sells it at cost. The principal advertised that he 
would inoculate all hogs free of charge if the owners 
would purchase the serum. In three months, with the aid 
of two boys, he inoculated nearly one thousand hogs in 
the county, saving to the farmers at least three thousand 
dollars. As his salary is eighteen hundred dollars a year, 
he seems to be making his demonstration work a paying 
proposition. 

At some of the schools in Louisiana dipping-vats have 
been installed, and are largely used by the farmers. One 
principal says, "Our school- work is felt over the entire 
parish, but those within a radius of three or four miles 
are receiving the most benefit." There seems no vaHd 
reason, however, why the school-demonstration work for 
adults, boys, and girls should not extend over as much 
territory as is covered by the daily school patronage. 
9 113 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

What is needed in every school of this kind is a definite 
plan to send the instructors in farm and garden work 
upon the farms and into the homes for demonstration 
work. In one school community the dairymen have fol- 
lowed the instructions of the agricultural teacher in mak- 
ing up a balanced ration for the herds, and the boys assist 
in this work. He is also showing the advantages of tested 
seed, pure stock, and diversified crops. Instances of this 
kind can be found in many states. In most of such cases, 
imfortunately, work of this nature is entirely voluntary, 
and is not yet a part of the definite school program. 

Several schools have boys' pig clubs and as a result one 
community has, since the establishment of the new 
agricultural school, five times as m^any good hogs as it 
had two years ago. This is school demonstration of the 
right sort. It goes as far as the boys do. The garden 
clubs of the girls have the same effect. Another agricul- 
tural teacher, soon after his work began, induced the 
farmers and dairymen in the community to keep records of 
the individual cows — something never before heard of in 
that section. The results were an eye-opener to the 
farmers who had supposed that "cows is cows"; and a 
large number of cows fell from grace to disgrace. He also 
organized a com club among the boys, with the result that 
several made over sixty bushels of com apiece per acre, 
and one boy just missed one hundred bushels. He or- 
ganized a boys' and girls' pig club, and in six months had 
seventy-five active members. Each member of the club 
was required to keep a record, to show gain or loss. Most 
of the children made money out of the enterprise. This 
work was all voluntary on the part of the instructor. 

Another agricultural school undertook to raise thorough- 
bred pigs and poultry and to interest the school community 
in the raising of better stock. The success has been such 
that the school has been entirely unable to supply the 
demand. The organization of boys' and girls* pig clubs 

114 



DEMONSTRATION WORK 

greatly stimulated this. One instructor got a grip on a 
boy by showing him how to do some gardening. The boy 
made a hotbed and raised all the young plants needed at 
home. He raised and sold twenty-two dollars' worth of 
onions on a small bit of ground. His father seemed sur- 
prised at the boy's interest, naively remarking that the 
boy **had never been interested in garden work before." 
How much would the father have been interested in his 
own farm work if he had gotten no pecuniary return? 

Other examples of good extension and demonstration 
work cover the analysis of fertilizers for the farmers, and 
teaching them how to purchase and mix their own fertilizer 
ingredients; the value of tested seed and how to select 
seed ; the use of improved implements ; deep plowing ; the 
value of peas, beans, and clovers ; winter crops, the value of 
rotation; the value of breeding up stock. This work, 
heretofore done by the agricultural colleges, is being taken 
up not only by the regular agricultural high schools, but 
even by schools which make no pretense of teaching 
agriculture, but are blessed with teachers who believe 
that this is one of the important functions of school and 
teacher. One principal found that through the direct 
influence of his school more money had been spent in one 
year for improved farm implements than in the previous 
five years. 

One teacher bewails the fact that his agricultural school, 
which has been in existence one year, ''has had no effect 
on production of farm crops in the surrounding country," 
because the school-farm was not ready for use ! How he 
might surprise himself and benefit the community if he 
would induce a number of farmers and farmers' sons to 
allow their home-farms to become school-farms, and thus 
have as many adult and boy students as he could look 
after ! 

A striking contrast to this attitude and an excellent 
illustration of the value of active extension and demonstra- 

115 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

tion work may be found in this record of a two-year-old 
school : 

The school has a farm which is used to train the boys and 
to be an object-lesson to the community. New methods 
of plowing, planting, and cultivating were introduced. 
Some of the farmers were persuaded to try them. One 
farmer remarked, "That acre of corn you raised on the 
school-farm last year made two thousand bushels of corn," 
meaning that this had been the effect on the community. 
The school has shown the farmers that "there are fer- 
tilizers — and fertilizers." The school is teaching them 
how to discriminate, and how to do their own mixing. 
This is saving thousands of dollars each year. One 
farmer declared that the instructions on this one thing 
had saved the farmers of that school community $5,000 
a year. When the school opened there were few good 
hogs in the community. The boys in the pig clubs, 
starting in a small way, now have $2,000 worth of regis- 
tered hogs and pigs in the school community. The hard- 
ware merchant states that he has sold more improved 
agricultural implements in the last two years than in the 
previous twenty years combined, and that this is due to 
the influence of the school. The boys' corn clubs and 
girls' garden clubs are directly under the management 
of the agricultural instructor of this school. The average 
for the boys in 19 11 — a dry year — was over 60 bushels 
of corn to the acre. One boy in 19 10 made 120 bushels 
on his acre. The average in the state in 191 1 was 18.5 
bushels. The girls' canning clubs are in a flourishing 
condition, and are having a decided effect on the com- 
munity. 

At a school in Massachusetts the teacher encouraged 
project work at home. One of the boys kept 26 chickens, 
and in six months showed a net profit of $27. Another 
boy fed to his father's herd of 12 Jersey cows a balanced 
ration, keeping accurate accounts of feed, labor, interest 

116 



DEMONSTRATION WORK 

on investment, etc., from November to June. He found 
that his best cow netted a profit of $54, while his poorest 
one showed a loss of $2.39. Another boy raised tomato, 
celery, and cabbage plants in a small hotbed, which netted 
him a profit of $35. The arithmetic, spelling, language, 
and bookkeeping work is largely based upon these 
activities . 

At two agricultural schools in Virginia a rather imique 
plan of cooperation has been devised, and the results 
obtained have been in every way satisfactory during the 
short time the experiment has been tried. At the school 
at Driver, Nansemond Coimty, Virginia, the instructor in 
agriculture is also the United States demonstration agent 
for the county. Under an agreement reached between the 
local school authorities, the state school authorities, and 
the United States Department of Agriculture, this in- 
structor has scheduled his time so that he spends a portion 
of it at the school and a portion on the farms of the adults 
and the boys. Besides having a flourishing agricultural 
club at the school, he is kept busy visiting farms through- 
out the coimty. He is employed by the year, and of 
course his busiest seasons are the spring and summer, dur- 
ing three months of which the school is on vacation and he 
can give all of his time to demonstration work. During 
his first year forty demonstrations were made on as many 
farms, with from one to twenty acres cultivated imder his 
direction. 

A similar experiment has been tried at Burkeville, in 
Nottoway County, Virginia. The teacher of agriculture at 
the school is also the United States demonstration agent 
for the county. There are flourishing boys' corn clubs and 
girls' canning clubs. This cooperative plan has been imder 
way only about a year. The school has its garden in ec- 
cellent state of cultivation, and the instructor is already in 
great demand among the farmers. The boys in this school 
make a specialty of seed-testing, and the farmers are 

117 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

taking advantage of this by bringing their seed to be 
tested. The instructor has got excellent results from 
dynamiting land for purposes of orcharding and subsoiling. 
At another school a one-acre apple orchard was pur- 
chased as part of the school-grounds. It is cultivated 
by the boys of the high school, working under an expert 
who occasionally visits the school. The boys are taught to 
cultivate, prune, spray, pick, and pack the apples. The 
proceeds of sales go to purchase library books and other 
equipment for the school. There are unlimited oppor- 
tunities here for work in arithmetic, in spelling, in lan- 
guage, in the keeping of records, in bookkeeping, and in 
marketing. Would the following study of the apple have 
any educational value, or might there be the risk of 
"commercializing" the boys and girls with ** common" 
things ? 

THE APPLE 

Variety 

1. Shape — Spherical, flattened, long, and egg-shaped. Does 

shape help in determining variety? 

2. Color — Streaks, freckles, etc., blush cheek. 

3. Stem — Long, slender; short, thick. 

4. Stem Cavity — Deep, shallow. 

5. Blossom End or Basin — Find remains of calj^, stamens, 

pistils. 

6. Skin — Polish small section. Appearance? Cause? Proof 

that it is wax (apple wax). Heat, water. 

7. Experiment — Peel one of these apples: place peeled apple 

and one unpeeled in contact, and third one near by, 
but not touching. Which one commences to decay 
first? Which next? Where? Lesson for care in 
harvesting and storing. 

8. Vertical Section — Color of pulp; juicy, mealy; sweet or 

sour? Any odor? Spicy? 

9. Core — Fibers connecting stem and blossom ends. Core- 

lines. Outer core-lines. 
118 



DEMONSTRATION WORK 

10. Transverse Section — Other core-line dots, how many? 

Where? Termination? What? Carpels, how many? 
How many seeds in each? Rudimentary seeds? Why 
developed? 

11. Seed — Outer coat, inner coat, germ, meat. 

A teacher of agriculture in a high school in which 
agriculture and domestic science were introduced in 1908 
states that the high school formerly had a purely classical 
course, and that the new subjects were received with utter 
indifference, or worse. There was ridicule of "book- 
farming" and "cooking." This in a farming community, 
too! But he has succeeded just in proportion to his 
efforts to reach the farmers. A large farmers' institute 
of men and women meets regularly at the school. Four- 
teen dairy herds have been cleared of tuberculosis by the 
aid of the school, although the owners had resisted the 
efforts of the board of health to compel a tuberculin test. 
Eighteen boys in the school work their demonstration 
acres at home under the supervision of the agricultural 
instructor. Each year sees more farmers consulting him 
about their work, about milk and cream testing; testing 
cows for tuberculosis; spraying, priming, and grafting 
trees; seeding; alfalfa; mixing fertilizers; balanced 
rations. The farmers' organization was imperative if for 
no other reason than because the coiinty is sparsely popu- 
lated, the roads are bad, and the farmers belong to several 
religious sects. The institute is served with lunch, pre- 
pared and served by the girls of the domestic-science class. 
This has caused a revolution of sentiment in regard to 
cooking in the school. 

The many illustrations cited to show the possible effect 
of the school on production might be multiplied indefi- 
nitely. Such instances can be given from communities in 
many of the states. The illustration from Minnesota has 
been taken as a type from the Northwest that will prob- 

119 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

ably be widely followed, with certain adjustments to suit 
local and state conditions. The illustration from Mary- 
land has been used to show the success of school-demon- 
stration work where a program has been arranged with this 
definitely in view. The illustrations from Mississippi and 
Louisiana have been used to show that where farm-schools 
and agricultural schools — the one purely a farm-school, 
the other embracing other studies also — have done actual 
extension and demonstration work among the people and 
on their farms, they have met with gratifying success 
in increasing production, in making the people look to the 
school for advice in regard to the every-day activities of 
the community, and in giving the school an outlook on 
present and future life instead of continuing the back- 
look on the past. The illustrations from Virginia are 
given to show the results of combining the agricultural 
instruction at the school with the agricultural demon- 
stration work on the farms, and to show a plan of coopera- 
tion including federal, state, and county authorities. 

The best school-farm is the home-farm where the worker 
is studying and working his own land under the direction 
of the school for his own benefit. This is as true of the 
child as of the adult. The little boy who had not shown 
an enthusiastic interest in working his father's garden, but 
who, when he saw that there was a chance for himself, 
made a hotbed, furnished plants to the household, and sold 
twenty-two dollars' worth of onions, is an illustration of a 
sane, natural, correct attitude in children that has been too 
long ignored. The little girl who joined the garden club 
because she wanted to make some money of her own is 
another illustration of the same wholesome attitude. To 
give children everything, without an effort on their part, is 
a sad mistake. To give them nothing after they have put 
forth efforts is an equally sad mistake. There should be 
a middle ground recognized by parents and by school 
authorities. There are some things that children should 

I20 



DEMONSTRATION WORK 

do — and usually will gladly do — as a duty and privilege. 
There are some things that children do for which they 
should be paid. Exploitation, while by no means an 
uncommon custom among adults, is least admirable when 
the child is the victim of it at the hands of parent, guar- 
dian, teacher, or employer. 

To expect children to do all the hard things for nothing 
but glory is to expect too much. It is utterly unfair, and 
when forced on children is an exhibition none the less 
mean and cowardly because sometimes unconsciously so. 

It is a necessary part of training in citizenship to show 
to children the economic value of citizenship in efficient 
production. Children dearly love to **do" things like 
*' grown-ups"; they resent being always treated as 
children, and that is one reason so many of them loathe 
school. This treatment is one of the most fruitful causes 
of the desertion of the school by the children after they 
have endured it for three or four years. Trying as it is to 
girls, it is intolerable to most boys. Growing up into 
citizens, they are permitted to have little or no part in 
the training process. With discipline, course of study, 
and all else handed to them or thrust on them, their grow- 
ing bodies and minds and souls cry out for an opportunity 
to be not only in but of the every-day life. 

If the children work in the school-garden and on the 
school-farm, all production over a certain amount should 
go to the individual doing the work. It is well to have a 
part of the garden cultivated for the school. The pro- 
ceeds from the rest of the work should be divided in fair 
proportion among the workers. When boys and girls join 
clubs to raise com, cotton, vegetables, fruits, pigs, poultry, 
or anything else, they should be treated not only as 
human beings, but should be treated as citizens dealing 
with citizens. Every transaction as to land, expenses, 
records, etc., should be conducted with scrupulous fairness 
and accuracy. It is the best of all times, and the best of 

121 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

all ways, to train the citizen in the making. He is putting 
forth energy, muscle, thought, time — for what? To be 
exploited? For what does his father work — glory or a 
crop? 

A school program cannot be complete which fails to 
include in its educational scheme a training in this neces- 
sary phase of citizen-making. 

The objection raised that to permit the children to earn 
money by their school work will "commercialize edu- 
cation," will "commercialize the child," is based on an 
utter misconception and a shallow premise. The child is 
not under this plan taught to make money for the sake 
of making money. He is not trained to make money for 
the sake of hoarding it. He is not taught under this plan 
to make money by taking advantage of some one else. 
He is taught to transact business in a business way — to 
put forth effort and time, and to expect a fair return 
in terms of every-day commerce. Does it "commer- 
cialize" the painter, the sculptor, the architect, to allow 
him materials to work upon and tools to work with ? The 
boy should have — and would have if he were treated 
sanely — the same attitude toward his com crop or his 
pigs as the sculptor toward his work. That element of 
our citizenship which is fearful that teaching boys and 
girls how to work efficiently and how to express this work 
in terms of commerce will " comm-crcialize " or degrade 
them is dangerous to the public welfare because it has a 
false and feudal, and not a social and democratic out- 
look. 

A little fellow seven years old worked all stmimer on his 
corn crop — five short rows of popcorn. He worked hard. 
At the end of the summer one of the laborers on the farm 
carelessly turned a horse loose, and in a little while the 
crop was ruined. The child came to his father. 

"Sam has turned one of the horses loose, and he has 
ruined my crop," he said. 

122 



DEMONSTRATION WORK 

"I am very sorry," said the father; "I'll speak to him 
about it." 

''But, daddy, that won't help my crop!" 

"You are right. We will estimate its value." 

They did so, and the boy was paid the proper damages. 

A little fellow raised an acre of corn, and exhibited some 
of it at the school fair. He was a very poor boy, and had 
probably never seen as much as five dollars in all his life. 
He won thirty dollars in cash prizes, besides owning the 
crop. Without the slightest suggestion from any one he 
went at once to his teacher and said to her: 

"I would like to see some other boy have a chance, and 
I want to give two dollars toward raising prizes for next 
year." 

Where was the commercialization of this boy's soul and 
vision? To teach a child to transact business on a money 
basis is one thing ; to inculcate in him a spirit of greed or 
selfishness is another. It is superficial to confuse the two. 

A training of boys and girls by the demonstration plan 
brings them into contact with commiinity life ; gives them 
material upon which to direct their physical, mental, and 
spiritual powers ; and it brings them into a normal and not 
an artificial contact with life. It shows them what it 
should show: that education is not a matter of childhood 
for childhood, but of life for life. It can be applied to old 
and young, and it can reach wherever a himian being on 
the land desires instruction. 



VIII 

THE SCHOOL-PLANT 

THE school-plant — the site, the acreage, the size, 
number, and type of btdldings and their equipment — 
will naturally be determined by the course of study, the 
purpose by which the school program is inspired, and by 
the community survey which must always be at the foun- 
dation of the school policy. To invest money in a school- 
plant without knowing the exact population, the rate of 
probable growth of the population, the economic and social 
needs and aspirations of the community, is as foolish from 
the point of view of good business management as it would 
be to locate an expensive manufacturing-plant in the 
center of the Sahara Desert. 

The object of public education is to make efficient 
citizens out of the raw material of childhood, and the 
money invested in grounds and buildings is certain to 
be badly invested unless the school authorities know in 
advance how much raw material they have to deal with 
and unless they have decided in advance upon the best 
school program for the efficient use of the raw material 
in the particular community under their educational juris- 
diction. No stereotyped plans will do; each commimity 
will have special conditions to meet, and these special 
conditions will require the most careful consideration and 
the best intelligence which the best educational authorities 
can give or can employ in the way of an expert school 
architect. For expert ability is as essential to the satis- 

124 




THE OLDEN TIME — STILL FAMILIAR 

MODERN TYPE, BUILT AFTER STATE PLANS AT YANCEY, VA. 




modern consolidated schoolhouse and transportation- wagons 

in indiana 

Types of Rural-School Buildings 



THE SCHOOL-PLANT 

factory layout of the school-grounds and the planning 
and construction of the school building or buildings as it 
is to the satisfactory formulation of an efficient school 
program and course of study. There are, however, cer- 
tain fundamental considerations that apply to all school- 
plants whatsoever, whether of the isolated one-room type 
or the large centralized or consolidated school. 

In selecting a site for the schoolhouse, in drawing the 
plans for the buildings, in equipping the grounds and 
buildings with sanitary conveniences and working appara- 
tus, the controlling consideration must always be the wel- 
fare of the children as citizens in the making. 

As long as the school trustees or the commtmity look at 
the school from the penny-wise standpoint the children 
cannot come into their own. The old school of finance — 
in which the present as well as the past generations have 
been trained — thinks it imwise to spend a dollar without 
the immediate prospect of a money return on the invest- 
ment. It gives the minimum required by law in providing 
for a school. Niggardliness is regarded as economy. 
School trustees — too often supported by community 
opinion — ^measure the efficiency of their administrations 
by the money they do not spend. They will prefer an 
inconvenient, inadequate, and possibly unhealthful loca- 
tion that costs fifty dollars an acre to a suitable one that 
costs one hundred dollars an acre. Or they will purchase 
a half-acre, when from two to ten acres are needed, to 
"save" from twenty-five to a few hundred dollars. As if 
money could ever be saved at the cost of the health and 
happiness and well-being of the children! 

But, happily, the tendency to look ahead and to provide 
wisely is growing. In thousands of instances the school 
authorities have the opportunity to purchase not only 
enough land for all present needs, but enough for the 
years to come, and in increasing numbers they are taking 
advantage of the opportunity. Recently, on the edge of 

125 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

a small town of about six hundred people a well-treed, 
ten-acre tract was put on the market. The school trustees 
of the district bought it for five thousand dollars. The 
town needs a new school, and will have to wait two years 
to accumulate enough money to build, yet the trustees 
wisely decided to buy the tract and wait rather than 
to build on a plot too small for a school and a community 
playground. The property is beautiful and is being still 
further improved with trees, lawns, flowers, and shrub- 
bery. These trustees realize that beauty in the school- 
plant has a positive value not only as a setting for the 
education of their children, but as an inspiration to the 
entire community. They have caught the spirit of true 
citizenship ; they understand that efficient public admin- 
istration is not to be measured by the amount of public 
money hoarded, but by the wisdom of its expenditure. 
They belong to the new school of finance, in whose view 
expenditure that gives the children a passion for beauty, 
that tempts them through self-activity to develop their 
muscles and grow into healthy animals, that conserves 
life and gives it tone and vigor, is money not only saved, 
but put out at a good rate of interest. For such expendi- 
ture means fewer sanitariums, fewer insane asylums, fewer 
jails and reformatories, fewer charities, fewer bums and 
hoboes — ^more good citizens. 

There is, of course, no rule of thumb for determining 
the exact acreage of the school-grounds. The number of 
pupils and games in vogue in the neighborhood, the num- 
ber of games that can profitably be played at one time, the 
size of the school-farm and school-garden, the amount of 
space that should be reserved for trees, lawns, flowers, 
shrubbery, outhouses, wagon sheds, and open-air classes 
— all these must be taken into account. And each one of 
these factors should be carefully weighed by the school 
trustees and the parents before a location is chosen. It 
should not require argument to show that no school is 

126 



THE SCHOOL-PLANT 

or can be satisfactory from the standpoint of the children 
unless all of these considerations are generously and wisely 
decided. For any one-room school with, or with the pos- 
sibility of, from fifteen to twenty-five pupils, two acres at 
the very least should be provided, and this acreage should 
be increased with the increase in attendance. A good rule 
is to consider the school-grounds as a community play- 
groimd, and, in addition to the ordinary requirements of 
the school-children, to provide space for those games that 
require a maximum of space and for as many games as 
the active members of the community, old and young, 
may need for their healthful recreation at any one time. 
For the school should be considered the social center of 
the commimity as well as the educational center for the 
children. 

And because the school must be regarded as a com- 
mimity center it should be located as near to the center 
of population as practicable — by no means always the 
geographical center of the school district. It is of course 
both bad policy and undemocratic to choose a site with 
reference to the convenience of any one person or group of 
persons, however influential, as against the convenience or 
interest of the community as a whole. And here again it 
is the welfare of the children that must receive first con- 
sideration ; if the center of population is not the center of 
the school population the latter should decide the location. 
Generally, however, in the long run, the two will pretty 
nearly coincide. 

But centrality in itself is not enough. A site may be 
central, may have an ample acreage, and yet be so difficult 
of access as to make it difficult for the children to reach 
it. What possible excuse can there be for forcing children 
to go to school over paths and roadways that cause them 
to arrive with shoes and stockings and clothing bedraggled 
with mud, torn with brambles, or covered with beggar's- 
lice, sheep-burs, and stick-tights? Sometimes children 

127 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

who go from one to four miles to school are compelled 
to fight their way through one bit of path or road that is 
so bad as to do more damage to clothes or wagon than a 
year's ordinary wear and tear. If the regular legal au- 
thorities cannot be persuaded to mend such places, let a 
few of the citizens volunteer to repair them. In many 
instances the task will not be beyond the children if 
properly encouraged and guided, and, in addition to in- 
creasing their comfort, will furnish them good training in 
citizenship and cooperative effort. 

And every now and again there will be upon the board 
of trustees or among the influential citizens of the com- 
munity one of those ardent patriots who think that there 
is no profit in building a schoolhouse that cannot be seen 
like an electric sign by all who pass within a radius of miles. 
Especially if a railroad runs through the district he will 
insist on having the schoolhouse on the peak of a hill so 
steep as not only to preclude the possibility of playgrounds, 
but also to make its attainment by the children a labor 
of Hercules. If accused of sordid motives he will ordi- 
narily plead the symbolic value of such a sky-towering 
site, forgetful of the difficulty the human spirit has in 
grasping the meaning of such subtle appeals when the 
muscles of the legs are aching and the lungs are panting 
for breath. A slope of more than one inch in three feet 
means not only erosion and the preclusion of playgrounds, 
but the foolish waste of the children's energy. 

The most important consideration of all is the moral and 
physical health of the children, their protection against 
vice, disease, and physical injury. Is the site healthful, 
or can it be made so? If not, it should under no circum- 
stances be considered. Marshy places or places that 
breed disease-bearing insects; railroads and factories, with 
their noise and dust and danger, are undesirable neighbors 
and should by all means be avoided. Nor should the 
presence of unsightly and immoral settlements, saloons, 

128 



THE SCHOOL-PLANT 

or groggeries be permitted in the vicinity of the school. 
They are a curse to any community, and the children 
should not be exposed to their degrading influence. But 
if a site is otherwise satisfactory, the interests of the 
children should not be sacrificed to their existence; such 
places should be closed or removed by law. 

The school site should be ample for the convenient 
location of the building and outhouses; it should offer 
abundant opportunity for the development of school- 
gardens and open-air classes ; its soil should be susceptible 
to the highest cultivation; it should be well drained; it 
should be readily accessible ; its approaches should be safe 
and easy; it should provide space for school and com- 
munity playgrounds; it should be made beautiful with 
trees, lawns, flowers, and shrubbery; it should be quiet 
and sheltered from all immoral influences. 

The site having been chosen, the size of the building — 
the number of rooms it shall contain — shoiild be carefully 
considered by those in authority before the plans are 
drawn or the position of the building on the site deter- 
mined. This may sound like a trite statement, but, as 
every one who has had wide experience with country 
schools knows, it is the exceptional community that 
considers and settles these elementary matters in the 
best interests of the children. The ordinary lack of fore- 
sight is really astonishing. The problem requires not 
only foresight, but intelligence, a highly sensitized intel- 
Hgence. Is not the fact that schools are constantly being 
erected that herd children to the number of from forty to 
one hundred and ten in a single room conclusive proof 
of this statement? Such practices are survivals of the 
time when the schools were regarded as a species of 
prison and the teacher as principally a custodian of the 
police power of the commimity for the ** discipline" of the 
children during school-hours. Herding is not only ruinous 
to health; it taints the moral sense of the children, de- 
10 129 



THE WOEK OF THE EURAL SCHOOL 

stroys their finer sensibilities, and makes it impossible 
for even the best of teachers to develop their normal 
individual and social impulses into free and purposeful 
action. 

If, then, the school authorities are confronted with the 
problem of providing a building for the community, they 
should first ask themselves: How many teachers will be 
necessary to give the children of this community the 
best possible opportunities for development into efficient 
citizens? Can the children of this community make 
better progress under one teacher or under more than 
one? The stock replies rattle like dried peas in one's 
ears: "We've got along for a good many years with one 
teacher for fifty children"; or, "We've made out pretty 
well for twenty years with two teachers and seventy-five 
children, and we guess that will do well enough"; or, 
"Anyhow, this community won't stand for so much ex- 
pense"; or, "I guess those of us who went to a one-room 
school average up pretty well." These are not argu- 
ments, they are unmistakable signs that all real fore- 
thought has degenerated into sleepy stupidity and 
indifference. As often as not citizens who make such 
statements will make better provision for their stock than 
they make for their children. 

It may be taken as a sound rule, and one that works 
for the best interests of the children, that an attendance of 
twenty children and up to forty requires two teachers and 
two rooms; that an attendance of more than forty-five 
and up to seventy-five requires three teachers and at 
least three rooms; of seventy-five to one hundred, four 
teachers and at least four rooms. This estimate does not 
include workrooms and auditoriums. The exceptions to 
this rule will be brought about by the variations in the ad- 
vancement and the ages of the children and the number of 
activities included in the school program, but the exceptions 
will always be in the direction of more rooms and more 

130 



THE SCHOOL-PLANT 

teachers — never less. If the school survey shows that 
there are fifty children in the community and the growth 
of the community is not at a standstill, then provision 
should be made for all fifty and a certain allowance in addi- 
tion should be made for probable growth in the near 
future. It does not meet the situation to say that *' All of 
them won't attend " ; or in states where attendance is not 
compulsory to declare, "Oh, well, there are fifty children 
in the community, but there are never more than thirty 
or forty present at any one time." Compulsory attend- 
ance will soon be the universal law; if the states do not 
see to it, the federal government will. But even where 
compulsory attendance is not the law of a state, there is 
something wrong with a commtmity that will listen to 
such specious arguments. If there is no legal compulsion, 
there should be the persuasive compulsion of a building 
and a school program that will draw children to the school, 
backed by a public sentiment sufficiently strong to over- 
come any supposed reasons or excuses for keeping the 
children away from school. Progress cannot be made by 
resting quietly under wrong conditions or by tolerating 
conditions that do not constantly make for the ideal of 
community life. A community that does not provide 
ample grounds and adequate housing for its children is 
blind to its own best interests as well as to the best interests 
of the children and the nation. 

The size of the schoolrooms must be determined by the 
maximum number of children allowed in them at any one 
time. The minimum floor space for each person, in- 
cluding the teacher, is fifteen square feet. The minimum 
air space for each person is two hundred cubic feet. 
This means absolutely clear space; in calculating the air 
space, allowance should be made for cloakrooms, vesti- 
bules, desks, chairs, tables, stoves, bookcases, and the 
like, and for all of these additional space should be 
provided. 

131 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

If, for example, 20 children constitute the maximum 
allowed to use a room at one time, the proper floor area 
will be found by multiplying 15 — the number of square 
feet required for each person — by 21 — for the teacher, 
ordinary practice to the contrary notwithstanding, does 
occupy space. This will give 315 square feet. Each of 
these 21 persons would require 200 cubic feet of air in the 
clear, or 4,200 cubic feet of absolutely empty space. 
Dividing the number of cubic feet of free space — 4,200 — 
by 315, the floor area, and we have the height of the room 
— 13.33 feet. The width of a schoolroom should ordi- 
narily be from two-thirds to three-fourths of its length ; a 
room 18x20x12 will give a floor area of 360 square 
feet, and an air space of 4,320 cubic feet. But this does 
not make sufficient allowance either in floor space or in 
cubic content for the usual ''fillers," and it would there- 
fore be safe to enlarge the dimensions to 18x24x12 
for 20 pupils and the teacher. It should always be borne 
in mind that up to a reasonable limit no harm can come 
from making a schoolroom too large. The height should 
never be less than 12 feet, and for the sake of good light 
especially a greater height is preferable. 

An abundance and proper diffusion of light is as im- 
portant as an abundance of floor and air space. Recent 
investigations have revealed an appalling number of 
school-children with defective vision. The repeated 
testimony of eye specialists has been that but for the 
schools many of them would have to go out of business. 
Even to-day, when so much has been written upon the 
subject and when the science of proper lighting has 
made such great progress, buildings are erected with not 
enough windows, with windows whose streams of light 
fall at the wrong angles and make conflicting shadows, with 
windows that come neither close enough to the floor nor 
near enough to the ceiling. 

In planning a schoolroom the amount of clear glass 

132 



THE SCHOOL-PLANT 

surface — and it must be remembered that window frames 
make no part of a clear glass siu'face — should be from 
20 to 25 per cent, of the gross floor space. A room made 
for twenty pupils and a teacher — to revert to the illus- 
tration already used — should have seventy-two to ninety 
square feet of clear, unobstructed lighting surface, and, 
of course, if buildings or trees or other unavoidable 
objects obstruct the light, the surface should be corre- 
spondingly increased. It is always better to have too 
much than too little light. If inadequate provision is 
made when the building is constructed, it is almost 
impossible to increase it, while its regulation if the light 
is excessive is a simple matter. The roller-shade curtain 
which can be raised or lowered either from the top or 
bottom of the window is a satisfactory controlling device. 

There is no difference of opinion among those who have 
studied the matter scientifically that the pupils should 
never be seated facing the light, or with their right 
shoulders toward it. When the light strikes directly 
into their faces it not only injures the eyes, but stops the 
thought processes. When it falls over their right shoul- 
ders it casts shadows that make ease and accuracy of 
workmanship difficult. When the light comes from the 
left through windows that are properly "bunched" so that 
there are no walls or supports between the sashes it makes 
no shadows. So that expert opinion is unanimous in 
favor of left-side lighting. There is some difference of 
opinion as to whether light should be admitted from 
the rear of the room, but the preponderance of authority 
is to the effect that rear light is valuable so long as it is 
admitted in a way to supplement the light from the left, 
not conflict with it. To secure this result the rear- window 
surface should not exceed one-half of the left-side sxirface, 
and the windows should not come so close to the floor as 
the left-side windows. 

Teachers sometimes object to rear windows on the 

133 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

ground that they make them face the light. This can 
happen only when the teacher's desk and chair are at the 
front, a position warranted by nothing but the obsolete 
police-power tradition of the teacher's function. A 
teacher who is interested primarily in teaching will find 
the side or the rear of the room quite as convenient as the 
front. In fact, even in a schoolroom arranged on the 
desk-in-a-row plan it would seem that "order" might 
be most easily maintained by a teacher stationed at the 
rear. This is the testimony of many teachers who have 
tried both positions. If Johnny is disposed to be mis- 
chievous he is at a disadvantage when he is unable to see 
whether the teacher is watching him or not. Teachers 
who are convinced that children will not grow without 
having a symbol of discipline constantly before them are 
close spiritual kin to the university graduate who recently 
changed the position of the desks in his room so as to make 
the children face the light on the ground that this would 
strengthen their eyes! 

To secure the most satisfactory diffusion of light the 
windows should always be placed within six inches of the 
ceihng. The upper fourth of the window furnishes one- 
third of the light, and when the ceiling is too far from 
the upper sash the light is absorbed instead of being given 
back into the room. For similar reasons the color of the 
walls should be selected with reference to a maximum 
diffusion of light and a minimum tax on the eyes. Yellows 
and buffs absorb little light, but they produce visual 
fatigue. Probably the best color for the walls is a light 
green-gray, and white is best for the ceilings. 

It need hardly be said that arched windows defeat the 
purpose for which school- windows are built. The esthetic 
ends which arched windows are intended to serve are 
much more satisfactorily attained by a carefully con- 
sidered scheme of decoration. Some of the most attrac- 
tive schoolrooms are made so by a simple frieze in soft- 

134 



THE SCHOOL-PLANT 

colored chalks along the upper edge of the blackboard. A 
picture-molding running around the entire room is indis- 
pensable, and of course its appropriate use is equally 
so. But pictures are likely to do more harm than good 
when they are covered with glass. There are few more 
subtle instruments of torture than the plates of glass that 
flash darts of light into the eyes of the children from 
pictures that are meant for their delight and comfort. 

Why should not the schoolroom be the most gracious and 
homeHke of places ? Nothing will so certainly bring to the 
surface the generous impulses, the enthusiasms, and the 
sweetness that are innate in all children as an air of 
** homey" coziness; just as nothing will so certainly stifle 
these impulses and arouse temper and irritation as the 
bleakness, the chill, and ugliness that are so wide-spread 
in the schoolrooms of the country. 

But ampleness, brightness, and beauty will fail in a 
room that is ill-ventilated. The query of the five-year- 
old girl who went to school with her mother soon after she 
had been to the circus would be justified in probably 85 
per cent, of the rural schools of the country. 

''Mother," she asked, "where is the elephant?" 

*'What elephant, child?" 

**I can't see him, but I smell him, mother." 

The three greatest tonics in the world are fresh air, sim- 
shine, and wholesome food. Two of these have not been 
affected by the high cost of living — they are free. This 
is probably the reason why we value them so little. 
Most people — school-teachers are no exceptions — seem to 
think that windows are made for ventilation and are all- 
sufficient for that purpose. Windows are really made for 
lighting, though many of them, judged by their size 
and position, do not appear to be made for any useful 
purpose. Of course, window ventilation is better than 
nothing, but it is altogether inadequate. No school can 
be made fit for use without a good system that will force 



THE WORK OF THE RUEAL SCHOOL 

fresh air into the schoolroom and force foul air out at the 
rate of thirty cubic feet of air each minute for each child. 
Such a system is not easy to devise, but it is more vital 
than difficult. Air that has been breathed and given off 
again by the lungs is poison, and it is an unpardonable sin 
against health and decency to compel children to breathe it. 
What would be said if children were required to quench 
their thirst with sweat from each other's bodies? Why, 
then, should they be forced to drink foul air that has been 
rejected by their bodies? It is an unhealthy, indecent, and 
filthy wrong that is prevented by law in some states and 
cities, and should be made a penal offense everywhere. 

Tuberculosis, pneumonia, grippe, and colds are bad-air 
diseases, and cannot thrive in fresh air. The initial cost 
of installing forced-draft systems in every schoolroom in 
America would not equal by half the annual cost of doc- 
tors and hospitals made necessary by foul air — the lack of 
good ventilation — ^in the schools. And this takes no 
account of the suffering, the heartache, and funeral 
expenses that follow the sacrifice of teachers and children 
to indifference, ignorance, stupidity, and greed. 

The forced-draught system is the best means of getting 
fresh air into and foul air out of the schoolroom. It con- 
sists of a dynamo or a gasolene engine, a fan or fans, 
and a proper system of flues. More and more small 
towns, villages, and country districts are having the 
wisdom to install it. Its cost is not prohibitive; indeed, 
a community that values the health of its teachers and 
children will consider its cost very reasonable. If we 
only had some universal system of social bookkeeping 
that would make the community see its share in the 
expense of individual doctors' bills and in the waste of 
human energy that doctors' bills so often stand for to-day 
there would be a revolution in school ventilation. For 
no one can be sick or below the standard of efficiency with- 
out being a charge upon the entire community. 

136 



THE SCHOOL-PLANT 

The jacketed stove has come into wide use in recent 
years, and when properly installed and managed is a con- 
siderable factor in ventilation. There are several good 
systems on the market, but, like most good devices, none 
has been made that is fool-proof. 

The lack of knowledge about the simplest rules of heat- 
ing and ventilation among school trustees, superintendents, 
and teachers is wide-spread for a number of reasons: 
The great majority of them received their schooling in 
an environment and at a time when no attention was 
paid to hygienic matters because no one knew anything 
about them. The intimate relation between bad air and 
such diseases as tuberculosis, colds, pneumonia, and grippe 
was unknown. In fact, fresh air was considered bad for 
such maladies, and night air was regarded as especially 
dangerous. The discovery that they are germ-diseases and 
that fresh air and sunshine fortify our resistance against 
them and, with nourishing food, are the only remedies 
for them is comparatively recent, and has yet to impress 
itself upon the consciousness of the great mass of the 
people who are slow to break with the habits and traditions 
not only of their own lifetimes, but of centuries. The 
young person who is slow to accept a sound new idea is 
the exception; the old person who is quick to take one is 
equally the exception. The schools are mostly in the 
hands of men whose ideas and habits were long since 
fixed. It is thus the misfortune of the children that the 
schools lag two generations behind, not only in courses of 
study, but in the healthfulness of their equipment and 
environment. In nothing is it more vital to keep open the 
eyes and ears of the mind and spirit for the reception of 
sound new ideas, and in nothing is it more important to 
keep open the pores of the mind and spirit for the discharge 
of effete ideas, than in this matter of the intimate relation 
between the amount and constancy of fresh air and sun- 
shine and the bodily and spiritual health of the children. 

137 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

Another reason — which is a corollary of the first — for 
the appalling lack of knowledge of the simplest riiles of 
heating and ventilation is that not only the primary schools, 
but the high schools, colleges, and universities have been 
slow to include instruction in these matters in their 
courses of study. The consequences of this attitude are 
tragically manifest on all hands. 

A graduate of a leading college was recently appointed 
principal of a new consolidated rural school that had been 
built according to state specifications regarding floor 
space, light, heat, and ventilation. The jacketed stoves 
had been ordered and delivered, but as the trustees had 
never seen one of these "new-fangled" things, they asked 
the principal to install them. He did ! Seeing the hole pro- 
vided for the inlet of fresh air and the hole for the outlet 
of foul air, he cut two squares of tin and nailed up both 
holes. He then set up the jacketed stoves, had fires built, 
and after opening the school with the Lord's Prayer, in the 
recital of which he blandly petitioned "Forgive us our 
trespasses and deliver us from evil," he called up the 
C£esar class, followed the campaign in Gaul with a lesson 
from the text-book on physiology and hygiene, and gave 
Mabel and James, the two leading pupils, perfect marks 
for their explanation of the effects of carbonic-acid gas. 

This is not an unusual instance. Scores could be cited 
as ludicrous and equally tragic. There was the school 
board that put in a six-inch flue to carry out the foul air 
that had been breathed by forty children in one room — as 
sensible as installing a six-inch waste-pipe for a three-foot 
discharge of water; and the janitor who nailed up the 
fresh-air inlet of an elaborate fan system for fear the 
fresh air would cool the furnace! 

The heating and ventilating problems must be settled 
together. Most schoolrooms are overheated, yet even 
when the thermometer registers high the room often feels 
cold. This is because the room lacks fresh air. Not one 



THE SCHOOL-PLANT 

teacher in ten takes account of the fact that it is much 
easier to heat pure, fresh air than it is to heat air that is 
stale and foul. The reason is obvious : fresh air is elastic 
and a good conductor, foul air is full of carbonic-acid gas 
and is difficult to penetrate. The heat diffuses itself 
readily through the one and with great difficulty through 
the other. It has been proved that children invariably 
make better progress in a cool or moderately heated room 
than in a room that is overheated; they are less liable 
to colds and kindred ailments, freer from irritation, rest- 
lessness, and a spirit of mischievous discontent. 

The final objection which stands in the way of modem 
heating and ventilating systems in many country dis- 
tricts is that their proper operation and repair require 
the services of a janitor, and that this means additional 
and unusual expense. There is only one answer when this 
question is raised — they do require not only a janitor, but 
an intelligent one. An intelligent janitor is as important 
an adjunct of the school-plant as the teacher, and it is as 
foolish to try to get along without one or with one that is 
''cheap" as it would be to get along without a teacher or 
with a "cheap" teacher. Here, as in all things, the de- 
termining consideration should be the welfare of the 
children. Money "saved" at their expense is worse than 
wasted. 

The same spirit should govern in the matter of seating. 

"How many children will be in the school?" 

"About twenty-five." 

"Well, order twelve double desks, assorted sizes." 

This usual method may save the trustees time and 
trouble, but is it to be commended? Careful investiga- 
tions have shown that seats that are not adapted to the 
sizes of the individual children cause physical injuries and 
diseases that sometimes result in serious physical handi- 
caps, sometimes in death. vSpinal curvature, rounded 
shoulders, fiat chest are all the products of improper seat- 

139 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

ing, to say nothing of the torture that children are com- 
pelled to endure when their legs are too long for the seats to 
which they are assigned, or so short that they dangle for 
hours at a time. 

The old-fashioned home-made benches were unspeak- 
ably bad, and they have by no means gone out of use. 
The "patent" desk and individual seat are undoubtedly 
an improvement, because, especially when they are 
"adjustable," they are designed with a serious aim to 
fit the individual shapes and sizes of the children. But 
even better than these, particularly for the primary 
grades, are the simple unattached chairs and tables which 
are as old as the nursery. These are inexpensive, they 
can be had in every community in as great variety of sizes 
as the individual needs of the children require, they can 
be moved about in obedience to the will of the teacher or 
the exigencies of class work or study, and where the 
activities of the room are properly organized they are as 
silent as the fixed seats and desks, and much less of a 
hindrance. Tables and chairs of all sorts and sizes for 
schoolroom use are being manufactured to meet the grow- 
ing demand. 

The motor activities of the children not only require 
more room than is usually provided, but more freedom 
for the body and limbs than is usually allowed. The 
"patent" desks and chairs always tend to cramp the 
body, and in most cases actually do cramp it. That 
this evil is so prevalent is astonishing in view of the 
amount of authoritative criticism that has been directed 
against it. This entire subject of proper seating is one 
that should receive the early and thoroughgoing attention 
of state and local school authorities, and especially of state 
boards of health, which in some quarters are doing such 
vital work in regard to lighting, heating, and sanitation. 

In what way should a child be seated to encourage the 
best development of his mind and body? That is the 

140 



THE SCHOOL-PLANT 

sole point at issue. The usual desk-in-a-row plan is a 
relic of medievalism, of an age when the democratic spirit 
had not penetrated the schoolroom. It was adopted for 
two purposes — ^first, to maintain discipline, and, second, 
to save space. Saving space is not one of the essentials 
of child growth. And so far from the desk-in-a-row 
arrangement helping to "maintain discipline," it is the 
enemy of that essential discipline which is the spirit of self- 
management, self-control, and self-development. If the 
schoolroom is to be a miniature democracy — ^what else 
should it be? — where the children are to develop their 
own powers of self-discipline through their own activities 
under the guidance of the teacher, they should not be 
rigidly confined to seats that are screwed to the floor in 
rigid, ugly rows. For a church this arrangement may 
answer, or in a college lecture-room where the students 
are concerned in nothing but hearing a lecture and taking 
notes, but for the use of children it cannot be successfully 
defended. 

If a teacher had but one pupil, does any one suppose 
that she would seat the child in an uncomfortable chair 
screwed to the floor and makejt sit there for hours at a 
time in the usual wooden way? Would she not permit it 
to move about, to ask questions, to be more at ease, more 
natural? But if one child, why not two? And if two, 
then why not twenty? The inevitable answer will, of 
course, be that such freedom would destroy discipline. 
And an autocratic, undemocratic discipline it might 
destroy. Such discipline depends upon the leather strap, 
the hickory stick, indiscriminate "keeping in after school" 
for all manner of transgressions against a specious code 
of rules, quite as much as it does upon desks in a row. 
Happily, the abolition of the "patent" seat and desk 
in favor of the iinattached chair and table is not an 
untried experiment, and where it has been tried the 
results have fully justified the best predictions and hopes 

141 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

of those who desired the change, and have shattered the 
gloomy prophecies of those who knew that chaos would 
certainly follow. There is probably no more beautiful, 
interesting, or inspiring sight than a schoolroom of chil- 
dren seated in chairs that comfortably fit each child, at 
tables of just the right height, happy in an air of busy order 
that is the only good order — an atmosphere of work 
whose sunlight kills every Itirking germ of autocratic 
discipline. 

But if "patent" seats and desks are to be used, the 
greatest care should be taken to provide sizes that will, 
as nearly as possible, meet the individual requirements 
of the children. There is no longer any excuse for purchas- 
ing double desks, except the disgraceful excuse that they 
will save money. Single desks and seats that are in 
some measure adjustable can be bought of all the leading 
school-supply houses. And where they are adopted the 
following rules should be followed: 

1. Desks range in size from i to 6, No. i being the smallest, 
No. 6 the largest. The rural school should contain a single row 
of No. 2, a row of No. 5, and two rows each of Nos. 3 and 4. 

2. Only single adjustable desks should be used. 

3. Only desks of the same size should be placed in the same 
row. 

4. The smallest desks should be placed nearest the windows. 

5. The desks should be placed so that the distance from the 
edge of the desk to the back of the seat will be: For Nos. 5 and 6, 
nine inches; No. 4, ten inches; No. 3, eleven inches; and No. 2, 
twelve or thirteen inches. 

The children's feet should touch squarely on the floor. 

6. The aisles at the sides and rear should be about three feet 
wide, and the others about twenty inches. 

Even after the desks and seats have been arranged to 
fit the sizes of the children it does not follow that John 
shovud be placed on the front seat to keep him out of 

142 



THE SCHOOL-PLANT 

mischief and Mary on the back seat because she is 
**good." There are thousands of semi-deaf and near- 
sighted Johns and Marys sitting in the rear of school- 
rooms who are having their time wasted and are con- 
sidered dull because the teacher does not know that 
their vision or hearing is defective. 

A superintendent visiting a second-grade schoolroom 
in a small village noticed a boy sitting near the back of the 
room. 

"How did Larrie Jones get into this room?" the super- 
intendent asked. 

"His father moved into the district, and he was trans- 
ferred," the teacher answered. 

* * How long has he been here ? " 

"About ten days." 

"How does he get along in his classes?" 

"Only fairly; he doesn't pay good attention much of 
the time, and he makes irrelevant answers." 

"How about this boy in front here?" 

"Oh, he's quick as a flash!" 

"Suppose you ask them to change seats," the superin- 
tendent suggested, "and then see how Larrie gets along." 

A week later the superintendent visited this same room. 

"How is Larrie doing now?" he inquired. 

"Oh, very much better," the teacher immediately 
replied; "he has come to be one of my best and most 
attentive pupils." 

"How do you account for the change?" the superin- 
tendent asked. 

"I don't know, imless he feels himself more under my 
discipline now that he is nearer me." 

The fact was that the boy's hearing was defective, and 
he hadn't been able to hear while he sat on the back seat. 

"I hadn't the remotest idea of such a thing!" said the 
teacher, when the matter was explained to her. 

In this case, as in many more of the same kind, the 

143 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

fixed platform for the teacher was equally responsible with 
the desk-in-a-row arrangement of the seats for the mis- 
chief done the child. Like the rigid seats, the fixed plat- 
form is a relic of medievalism and should be discarded 
with the leather strap, the hickory stick, and the autocratic 
ideal of discipline. The teacher should dwell with the 
children and guide them through their self-activities, not 
sit over them and endeavor to fill them with knowledge 
after the most approved methods of fattening chickens 
and geese. 

To build a schoolhouse and then save money by refus- 
ing to buy plenty of blackboard is on all-fours with build- 
ing a buggy and then saving money by refusing to buy 
taps for the wheels. Nothing is more essential to progress 
in studies than abundant blackboard space and its use 
by the children. Aside from the fact that the blackboard 
is of great assistance to the teacher in keeping children 
busy, it is often a relief to the pupils to leave their seats and 
do blackboard work. 

Slate is the best material for blackboards, and in the 
long run is the cheapest. But there is bad slate, and a 
great deal of it is used in the schools. The best place to 
get good blackboards is from a thoroughly reliable dealer. 
Under no circumstances should a slick, shiny, glaring 
surface be tolerated. Its effect on children's eyes is 
distinctly bad, and its use should be forbidden by law. 

In setting blackboards, care should be taken to set 
them to the sizes of the children. To place all the black- 
board so high that the small children cannot reach it 
without stretching their arms and necks is utterly bad. 
It is not generally known that bending the head back 
and looking up for any length of time interferes with the 
circulation of the blood and stops the thought processes. 
Dustless crayon should always be used. No other kind 
is healthy. 

Every schoolroom should of course have ample cloak- 

144 



THE SCHOOL-PLANT 

room space separate from the sitting-room, but easily 
reached by the children. The cloakroom should be well 
ventilated so as to prevent dampness and odors. Under 
no circtimstances should it be dark. It should be well 
lighted, well ventilated, and should have little troughs, 
with catches for holding umbrellas and rubber shoes, so 
that the water will run off and out-of-doors. For a few 
dollars such devices can be made and installed and they 
greatly add to the healthfulness and convenience of the 
children. 

Most cloakrooms are too small by from one-half to one- 
third. The space should be so ample as to preclude the 
possibility of the hats touching each other when hung on 
pegs. The coats and cloaks should be suspended on 
hangers so as to be entirely free from contact. The cus- 
tom of hanging cloaks, coats, hats, and umbrellas in the 
schoolrooms or hallways should never be permitted. To 
force children to hang these things in the schoolroom or 
pile them up on chairs or put them in their desks is to 
exhibit gross indifference to ordinary decency. 

In many schools it is entirely practicable to have 
provision made for the children to eat their lunches at 
table in a regular and orderly way, out-of-doors in good 
weather, indoors in bad. The necessary plates, dishes, 
knives, forks, spoons, paper napkins, etc., can be secured 
and kept at little cost, and folding-tables and folding- 
chairs will take up little room during study-hours. Where 
the patent desks are used the schoolroom will have to be 
large enough to offer the extra space for the table or 
tables. Where the work-tables — for writing, study, etc. — 
are used with movable chairs, which, as already stated, is 
much the best arrangement, especially for the first four 
or five (primary) grades, these tables can easily be utilized 
for limcheons. 

The plan of having the luncheons served in orderly 
fashion is especially valuable in schools where cooking is 
11 145 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

— as it should be everyivhere — included in the school 
program. If in schools already erected it is not prac- 
ticable to provide lunchrooms the teachers should impro- 
vise plans for having the luncheons eaten from the desks, 
and in a way that will make the noon-day meal a source of 
pleasure and good breeding. This will be for days that are 
too inclement for the children to have luncheons out-of- 
doors. Whenever the weather permits, the best place to 
have luncheons served is out-of-doors. Folding-tables and 
folding-chairs are cheap and can be quickly set up and 
quickly put away. 

The moving picture is destined to be a great factor in 
the schools of the future. Some rural schools are already 
using them for educational purposes. 



IX 

SOME NEGLECTED FACTORS IN RURAL-SCHOOL EQUIPMENT 

THE rapidly increasing use of electricity and gasolene 
for generating power makes it practicable to-day as 
it never was before to have a water system for the toilet, 
shower-baths, and drinking-fountains. In fact, it is the 
exceptional school which cannot now have such a system, 
and every school that can should have a system of running 
water. Where no pubhc water-supply can be tapped either 
a running stream can be used with a water-ram or engine, 
or a well or cistern can be used with a dynamo or gasolene 
engine. For a small sum of money a good well can be 
drilled, and all machinery and apparatus, including a 
pressure-tank, closet system, shower-baths, and a sewer 
or sanitary well for waste, can be installed. A number 
of one-room schools have installed pressure-tanks operated 
by a hand pump with entirely satisfactory results and at 
remarkably low cost. 

The sanitary condition at most of our country schools 
in the United States is not merely bad — ^it is too vile for 
description. The varying conditions may be described on 
a pyramidal plan: At the bottom are tens of thousands 
of schools that have no outhouses for either sex, and tens 
of thousands that have one insanitary outhouse for the 
girls and none for the boys. Above these there are tens 
of thousands of schools that have one insanitary outhouse 
for each sex. Here the building of the pyramid ceases, 
for the niimber of sanitary, properly located outhouses is 

147 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

relatively so small that they must be counted by the thou- 
sands, and not by the tens of thousands. Indeed, there 
are still many states in which the properly located, 
thoroughly modem and sanitary outhouses can be counted 
only by the hundreds or the scores. 

This horrible condition has existed and has been toler- 
ated since the foundation of the public-school systems 
for the same reasons that the bad-air conditions have 
existed — lack of knowledge of their menace to health and 
morals. So hardened to these unspeakable conditions 
has the male portion of the population become that it is 
almost impossible to eradicate the prevalent idea that 
sanitary and clean outhouses are not possible with boys. 
The truth is, boys are innately clean, refined, and modest 
— ^just as girls are — but they soon have their finer instincts 
killed by the example of older people. What frightful 
wrong we do the children by such conduct! 

It is a comparatively recent discovery that typhoid 
fever is a germ-disease, and that it is contracted only by 
the swallowing of water or food that has typhoid germs 
in it. It is now known that typhoid germs come from 
'the discharges of people who have typhoid fever, and 
from nowhere else. It is known that drinking-water is 
infected by these discharges through improper drainage. 
It is known that the common house-fly is the greatest 
carrier of this disease from night soil to the foods of people. 
It is now known that the greatest distributing center of 
typhoid fever is the usual type of home and school privy, 
where the flies feed by the billions between meals, and 
then carry the germ-laden filth on their feet, legs, and 
bodies to the house when they join the families at break- 
fast, dinner, and supper, besides sampling all the food 
in the kitchen and bathing in the milk. Some one has 
said that many flies have suicidal tendencies and choose 
milk as their medium of destruction. 

Flies breed mostly in stable manure, but also in almost 

J46 



SOME NEGLECTED FACTORS 

any kind of filth, or decaying matter, such as meats and 
vegetables. 

It is fortunate that it has been proved that stable manure 
which has been hauled to the fields fresh, or that has 
been protected from the weather, is much superior to 
manure which has been thrown out from the stables or 
bams in a pile waiting to be hauled out in the fall, winter, 
or spring. When this once gets into the consciousness of 
the American farmer the greatest breeding-place for flies 
will be eliminated; and while he protects the manure 
his boy or girl will, incidentally, be safer from the disease, 
which is still largely regarded as a mysterious visitation 
of Providence instead of a perfectly natural result of 
filthy conditions. It takes ten days for flies to breed. 
If all the manure is removed even once a week this breed- 
ing-ground is eliminated. 

It is very easy to interest children in the fact that 
decaying meats and vegetables, and dirty paper, and un- 
clean outhouses form breeding-places, and that all filth 
in which flies breed should be carefully put in a covered 
receptacle and destroyed at regular intervals. This train- 
ing not only causes them to protect the schoolrooms and 
grounds and keep them in clean condition, but the good 
effect of the training is soon seen in their homes, and 
especially when they set up homes of their own. 

It does not cost much in money to build sanitary out- 
houses at the school. The price varies from nine to thirty 
dollars each for two dry closets for one and two-room 
buildings. For larger buildings the price will vary from 
fifteen dollars up, depending on size and material. The 
closet can easily be made fly-proof, and if the boys and 
girls are formed into committees to look after the good 
order and cleanliness of these places they will be kept in 
perfect condition. A boy accustomed at home to see im- 
modest, careless conditions will very naturally debauch 
the conditions at school. Why shouldn't he? Train up 

149 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

a boy in the way he should not go, and when he is old he 
will rarely depart from it. 

Two sanitation committees were once formed at a 
large school. One committee was composed of the larger 
boys, the other of the larger girls, the members being 
chosen so as to include some boys who were very care- 
less but who were leaders. Proper and improper condi- 
tions were frankly explained. These houses were their 
property, built for their convenience. They were ex- 
pected to protect their property from any who showed 
a tendency to deface or soil the walls or floors. It is 
never difficult to form an efficient committee of girls. 
They have usually been protected at home, and their 
inbred refinement goes to school with them. But with a 
little tactful oversight and inspection, and with kindly 
criticism and wholesome commendation and suggestions, 
the boys catch the idea promptly, and, considering the 
rearing they have had, it is astonishing how quickly they 
bring decency and cleanliness to the front and keep them 
there. And so this committee of boys did. One day at 
recess a boy came crying to the superintendent with the 
plaint that some of the boys had bumped him. The boys 
were promptly summoned. 

"Why did you bump this boy?" was asked. 

** Because he befouled the closet," was the answer. 

"The next time he does it don't bump him too hard, 
but just hard enough," said the superintendent. And 
there was no more trouble. 

It has been found that hookworm is the direct result of 
insanitary conditions resulting from a lack of good home 
and school privies. This disease is thus a filth-disease and 
is enormously prevalent in a belt all around the world 
extending about thirty degrees on each side of the equator. 
That it does not take a wider sweep is due to climate 
alone. The hookworm victims become an easy mark for 
tuberculosis, pneumonia, and other germ-diseases, since 

150 



SOME NEGLECTED FACTORS 

the disease weakens the resisting power of the persons 
infected. 

The lack of decent, sanitary closets is the cause not only 
of typhoid fever, but of constipation, with its long train of 
bodily miseries, and of numerous other troubles that go 
with the victims through life. Many a boy and girl, not 
knowing the terrible evils that grow from retention, pre- 
fers to remain in the school rather than go out in the woods 
or go to a filthy closet. 

A fearful responsibility rests upon the teacher who fails 
to teach in the proper way the physiology and hygiene of 
this subject. There is no need for squeamishness on the 
one side or lack of tact on the other. A natural function 
can be treated in a natural way. A "refinement" that 
cannot tolerate a mention of how to improve conditions, 
but tolerates the bad condition, is hardly skin-deep. 
Prudishness and stupidity are not refinement at all. The 
rule prevailing in tens of thousands of schools of refusing 
to let a child leave the room upon request should be for- 
bidden by law, and any teacher who violates this law 
should be prosecuted and dismissed. 

The menace to the morals of children is of course as 
threatening as the menace to their health when they are 
forced to submit to these intolerable conditions. A mere 
roof and the four walls of a school privy, so far from 
protecting health and morals, are often breeding-places 
for disease and an invitation to vice. 

Why should the closets be placed so near each other 
that the boys and girls must pass each other to reach 
them? Why should they be so close that conversation can 
be heard from one to the other? Or why should they be 
stuck in the yard, looking like two huge warts on the face 
of the school-grounds? Why should they be windowless 
and dark? Where on earth are sunshine and light and 
fresh air more needed? Why is it apparently a crime to 
have a trellis with flowers or vines banked between the 

151 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

school and the closets? Flowers and evergreens make 
ugliness beautiful, turn coarseness into refinement; and 
when children are allowed and directed how to prepare and 
plan, and how to grow these, they come quickly, remain 
permanently, and add to the sum total of happiness. 

Many state boards of health and the United States 
Bureau of Education are glad to send plans and specifica- 
tions for sanitary privies and their surroundings. To 
fail to use them is immoral, because it tends to degrade 
our future citizenship. It is curious that even these 
boards recommend the same kind of closet for boys and 
girls. Different kinds are obviously needed. 

Taking a financial view of the matter, the building of 
decent and sanitary closets of ample size and equipment 
in or at every schoolhouse in this country would not cost 
as much money as the neglect to do so causes each year 
in illness and vice. Again it may be said that if the 
community could only realize that, after all, not the 
individuals affected, but the community, pays for every bit 
of this illness and vice, there would be a revolution in 
this matter. And it should be preached and declared by 
every teacher and every wide-awake citizen that the 
community does that very thing! 

Throughout the United States there are many days 
during the session when lessons can be heard out-of-doors 
or can be learned out-of-doors. Every rural school 
should be located on the school-grounds so that just next 
to the school, on one or more sides, the children, or a part 
of them, can sit for study or recitation purposes. There 
are several ways of arranging this. On warm, dry days 
the children can sit in chairs on the grass; on colder days, 
or when the ground is wet or damp, they can sit on fixed 
or movable platforms. A concrete platform slightly 
elevated, and mth gentle slopes for drainage, can be made 
by the larger boys, who would consider it "great fun" to 
do the work. Arrangements on three sides of the school 

152 



SOME NEGLECTED FACTORS 

would meet almost every problem of wind and sunshine 
and of two or three grades of children. If there are no 
trees — as there should be in every yard — a covered roof 
with posts might be used in some places where rains are 
frequent or the sunlight too glaring. They should, of 
course, be made attractive with growing vines or flowers 
covering the posts and running along the roofs. 

If all the children are not seated out-of-doors it should 
often be possible — and best — to let the children who are 
studying sit out, while those who are reciting could be 
inside. There should be no iron-clad rule about it in any 
school. Children don't grow according to iron-clad rules, 
nor should they be tortured into fitting them. 

Every school should have one or more workrooms on 
the school-grounds, either as a part of the school-building 
or as a separate building. Not infrequently when a new 
building is to be erected the old one can be utilized for 
workroom purposes. 

What is the object of the workroom? In a small school 
it can be used as a place in which to teach cooking and 
sewing; as a place in which to teach certain handicrafts; 
as a place in which to teach the use of the indispensable 
tools of the home, with simple woodwork and work in iron. 
In larger schools the workroom should be large enough to 
be divided, if necessary, so that besides the sewing and 
cooking room there may be a carpenter shop for the boys 
and a place for the collection and examination of soils, 
seeds, and plants. The number of workrooms, their sizes, 
their uses will be based upon the life activities of the 
community in which the school is situated. No elaborate 
finish or equipment is needed. The building or room 
should be simple, clean, and comfortable. For the 
carpentry and iron work a shed is often sufficient — where 
the lumber and other materials can be kept and where a 
roof will protect from weather. The building can be built 
by the boys, and can be relieved of bareness by getting 

153 



THE work: of the rural school 

the boys and girls to paint or whitewash it, and to plant 
and cultivate flowers and shrubbery and climbing vines 
about it. 

Some localities are including distinct workrooms in 
their school plans, and these are meeting with great suc- 
cess. It has been found that the children, when allowed 
to have and use a workroom, take more interest in the 
usual book program, come more regularly, and remain in 
school longer. It is not impossible to do sewing, cooking, 
and simple handicraft in a one-room school, but it is so 
easy to add the workroom that there seems little excuse 
for its not being done. The quick response made in most 
communities, when the citizens are asked to help erect 
and equip a workroom, shows the interest the public 
takes in this vital feature of real education. 

The importance of a school-garden and a school-farm 
has already been considered under "The Widening Out- 
look of the Rural School." It may be added, however, that 
one of the essential uses of a school-farm is the training of 
the boys in the right use and care of farm tools and 
machinery, and this requires that the school should own a 
variety of tools and machinery so that the boys may 
learn how to take them apart and set them up properly. 
There should, of course, be included the care and use of 
farm animals. A valuable adjunct is a good smithy, 
which should be conducted as a business for the use of the 
neighborhood. If there is a smithy in the neighborhood 
the school should secure the cooperation of the smith in 
the teaching of the boys. 

The lack of an adequate conception of the function of 
the school-plant — ^its uses, its relation to the every-day 
Hfe, and its large part in that life — ^is in no way more 
clearly shown than in the almost universal absence of 
school-cottages, a vital unit in the physical equipment of 
the school center. 

Just as the school-building should be planned with great 

154 



SOME NEGLECTED FACTOIlS 

care as a model for the convenient use of the children, so 
the school-cottage should be planned as a model of what 
a home should be. In architecture it should be — as all 
buildings should be — on simple and classical lines. It 
should be built with a view to saving steps for the house- 
keeper. It should be built to accentuate the idea that 
housekeeping should be, not a tradition, but a science. It 
should be a model of ingenuity in securing a maximum of 
labor-saving, time-saving devices at a minimmn of cost. 
From front door to kitchen, from cellar to garret, from front 
yard to back, it should show purpose in every detail. 

In connection with the school the cottage should have 
a water system. Its kitchen should be utilized as a center 
of the cooking and home-keeping activities of the school. 
Its dining-room, one of its bedrooms, its living-room, its 
bathroom and closet, could be used in the same way. As 
a training-center in housekeeping and home-making, in 
the making and keeping of the daily budget, it should be 
a model to the community. 

But * ' Who would keep it in vacation ?" It would be the 
home of the principal and his family — or of the teacher 
or teachers, according to its size — and would tend to 
minimize the evils of that wander-lust which seems to have 
infected the great mass of country teachers, not because 
they like to wander, but because the low pay and often 
unsatisfactory living arrangements force them to "move 
on." 

The development of the school-library as an essential 
part of the complete school-plant has been very encourag- 
ing in recent years, yet only a beginning has been made 
in most of the states, if the full extent to which a library 
can be used is considered. Having a collection of books 
in the schoolroom is one thing; making the most of the 
collection may be quite another. 

The state teaches children to read. With the many 
excellent school-readers, full of good literature, now used 

155 



THE WOUK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

it is hardly possible for a child to read a series of books and 
not have his desire for reading awakened. What then? 
Does the state provide the means to gratify this desire? 
Does it help the child to get something good to read? 
In some cases, yes. Most states or communities have 
made only the smallest beginnings in this direction. Yet 
to teach children to read, to give them the desire to read, 
and then to fail to provide anything with which they 
may gratify the desire is not right. The consequence 
is that the boys and girls read what is most easily ob- 
tainable — the dime and half-dime novels filled with utterly 
false views and with low standards of life. It would seem 
that the more vicious and nasty a book is, the cheaper it is 
and the more accessible it is. Why are not interesting, 
wholesome books accessible to children either free or at 
very low cost? A child who gets into the habit of reading 
wholesome books will not care for vicious ones. 

The idea in the past has been that a boy should learn 
to read so that he may be able to read his ballot. But 
what candidate on the ballot will he be most apt to 
support when he is saturated with the ideals of the 
Police Gazette or idealizes the gambler hero or the prize- 
fighter? More important than the power to read the 
ballot is the power to discriminate between persons and 
principles; more important still is the developed passion 
for personal and civic righteousness. 
: Who can see the barely perceptible line between the 
man who cannot read at all and the man who does not 
read at all? What is the difference between the literate 
who does not but can read and the illiterate who neither 
does nor can? 

Good books in good bindings are now offered at so 
reasonable a price that poverty is no longer a valid excuse 
in any rural community for the absence of a well-selected 
library. The literature of the world has been searched 
for material suitable for children; and so much has been 

156 



SOME NEGLECTED FACTORS 

found that there is almost an embarrassment of 
riches. 

Unfortunately, along with the gold there is much dross. 
The desire of the publishers to be represented in every 
school-library has led to an output that is bewildering in 
quantity, and it has become increasingly difficult to win- 
now the wheat from the chaff. Chaff is not poisonous, 
but it is anything but nourishing. 

Some of the books issued in series, giving false ideals 
of life and stimulating the appetite for highly seasoned 
stuff, should not be allowed in libraries. A visit to 
libraries containing such books discloses the fact that 
they are read to pieces, while other books that should 
be of interest to healthy-minded children are but little 
used. The fact that a child finds a book ''interesting" 
or that he "Hkes it " is not always a safe criterion of merit. 
Goody-goody books filled with moral lollypops and 
candied priggishness are utterly out of the question, and, 
fortunately, are not so much in vogue as in former 
days. 

Many of the state educational departments issue lists 
of books suitable for yoimg people's libraries, and these, 
as a rule, are good guides, though the tendency seems to 
be toward a generous inclusion rather than toward a selec- 
tion that means reasonable exclusion. 

The traveling library, in use in some of the states, has 
proved a great boon. It has been especially helpful in 
small and remote communities where the indifference of 
the local school authorities or of the people makes it 
difficult to interest them in a permanent library. In 
some communities it is of advantage for the traveling 
library to precede the permanent one: first, because a 
taste for good reading is created by it and because in 
many communities it is difficult to raise money for li- 
braries until the young people and old have acquired this 
taste; and, second, because there 13 a rigid requirement 

^51 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

that the books must be handled with care and must be 
returned in good order. 

If a well-selected library is placed in a community, a 
taste for reading good literature is created or developed. 
This result rarely, if ever, fails if the library is for the 
children. It is then comparatively easy to get the young 
people and the older members of the community to work 
for the establishment of a permanent library. The 
children are then eager for more reading - matter, and 
intelligently eager. They know just what they are raising 
money for, and just why they are interested in succeeding. 

Quite as important as developing this taste for reading 
good books is the careful training of the children and 
adults in handling the books. A book must not be abused. 
It must be handled with clean hands. Its leaves must not 
be dog-eared or turned down. Its back must not be 
strained or broken. It is a clean, pure guest in the home, 
and must be treated with the respect, the courtesy, the 
though tfulness due such a guest. This requirement has a 
tremendously elevating effect on a child. Few children 
treat a book maliciously, but most children, unless trained, 
treat books carelessly. The rules of the traveling library 
train the children away from malicious and careless treat- 
ment of books. 

There seems no sufficient i-eason why the library at the 
school should not be the community library, unless the 
community already has a well-equipped library elsewhere. 
There could rarely be a more convenient place for a 
library than the schoolhouse. The teachers and older 
boys and girls can act as librarians, while the facilities 
for getting and returning books are excellent. The chil- 
dren can easily take the books home for the older members 
of the household and return them to the library. This 
constant medium of communication encourages the use 
of the library. In places where this plan has been tried 
it has met with success. 

158 



SOME NEGLECTED FACTORS 

The teacher who uses the school-Hbrary as an adjunct 
to the school studies has a decided advantage over one 
who does not. It is impossible for the most talented of 
teachers to obtain a maximum of efficiency in teaching 
without a constant and intelligent use of well-selected 
Hbrary books. Teaching is made much more interesting 
and effective both to teacher and to pupils. If the 
teachers are not well trained in the use of these tools 
they should consult with those who are. To select 
books of reference, books for side reading, and books for 
general reading without a thorough knowledge of the 
subject is to make blunders and waste funds. Many of the 
state normal schools include in their course of study a 
training in the use of library books in the daily school 
program. All normals should do so, and it would be well 
if the states would require a knowledge of this subject 
before granting certificates to teach. It is amazing that 
in this day, with books for reference and books for sup- 
plementary and general reading so excellent, a teacher 
should be permitted or compelled to teach without their 
use. It is pathetic to see so many children utterly un- 
trained in the use of reference books and supplementary 
reading. Unless the habit of consulting reference books 
is cultivated in childhood it is not likely to be acqmred 
at all. This habit helps to make study a delight; gives 
a wide and varied information; makes the child stronger 
and better able to help himself; gets him into the habit 
of looking up every word and expression that he does not 
understand, and thus leads him away from the slovenly 
habit of passing these over when he knows he does not 
understand their meaning. The text-book publishers pub- 
lish excellent books supplementary to the texts on geogra- 
phy, history, hygiene. Where these cannot be used in class 
work — ^as they should be — they should be in every school 
and community library, and should, under the direction and 
encouragement of the teacher, be read by the children. 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

One of the worst of sinners is the teacher who solemnly 
glass-cases the library, locks the door, and keeps the key. 
Books are intended to be used, not to be gazed at through 
a pane of glass. There should be strict rules as to the 
treatment of books and as to their prompt return. Care- 
lessness in these things means the disintegration and ruin 
of the library. But these rules should be few and simple 
though rigidly observed. The distinction between the use 
and the abuse of a book should be clearly understood by 
the teacher and the pupils. But restrictions should be few. 
No one, young or old, in the community should be denied 
the privilege of reading the books; indeed, every one 
should be encouraged to read them. 

An all too common mistake in the selection of a library 
is to forget the smaller children and have books only 
for the larger ones — as, for example, the high-school 
pupils. Nine children out of ten never get into a high 
school; most of them never get beyond the fourth grade. 
The majority of the books should be for the majority of 
the children. There is no reason why there should not 
be an abundance for all. Children should be given books 
as soon as they enter school, and should be encouraged to 
use them. They should be encouraged to take books 
home even before they read fluently, so that their fathers, 
mothers, sisters, and brothers may read to them. A 
library should be started, not with an encyclopedia, but 
with a well-illustrated copy of Mother Goose. 

Another mistake that is too common is to regard a 
*' library," when it has arrived, as complete. A true 
library is never complete. It should be allowed to grow 
like boys and girls — all the time; and with that end in 
view it should be constantly nourished. 

The time will come — it should be here now — when no 
state, no community, will permit a single school to exist 
without a well-selected library. It is as necessary a part 
of the equipment as blackboards, text-books, and seats 

1 60 



SOME NEGLECTED FACTORS 

are. The time will come — ^it should have been here ere now 
— ^when a teacher who is not intimately acquainted with 
the functions and familiar with the uses of a library will 
not be granted a certificate to teach. 

Relaxation is as much a part of life as work. Children 
should not be kept at close attention to one subject 
for a long period. When the line or point of fatigue is 
reached, that work should stop at once. A continuance 
after that does harm; the children lose more than they 
gain. Fatigue produces a poison in the system, and a 
continuance of the work that is producing the fatigue 
means more poison to the system. 

The evil of overcrowding children with work is a wide- 
spread evil. It comes largely from the attempt to *'do" 
so many pages and subjects and pass the examination and 
go to the next grade. 

The school authorities pay too little attention to the 
proper proportion of work and relaxation among children. 
The belief that time is gained by "keeping right at" a 
piece of work for a long period, and that time is lost by 
taking a rest or relaxing, is not only an error, but an 
error that leads to serious results. Nervous headaches 
and nervous irritation are only two of the evils. Physical 
growth is not regular — nor is mental growth, nor spiritual 
growth. 

It is not difficult to tell when a child is fatigued, as has 
been pointed out. And when he is he should be allowed to 
relax, and to relax in plenty of pure, fresh air. A change 
of work from a quiet study at the desk, or a period of 
recitation, to play on the school-grounds, or to a period 
of work in the school-gardens, or to a period in the work- 
room, making something, is definitely beneficial. 

Then, too, children should be allowed periods of their 
own. Periods should be given them to use exactly as they 
wish. They may prefer to remain at some bit of work — 
in the workroom; in the garden; in the library; on the 

12 i6i 



THE WORK OF THE RUEAL SCHOOL 

playground; to visit another room or class, a tiling many 
of them take great delight in; to make a trip home for 
some special purpose; or simply to roam abroad, across 
the fields, through the woods, down to some interesting 
spot where they have found a squirrel's nest or been 
watching a couple of birds with their young. 

Usually, if there is a nest to see, or the home of some 
wild thing, they will wish their teacher to go with them, 
which, of course, the teacher will when opportunity offers. 
A boy shows his innate generosity of spirit, his fine sense of 
comradeship, his craving for acted but unspoken sym- 
pathy and love when he asks "teacher" to go to see his 
rabbit gums, or his little field of com, or the squirrel's nest 
he has found, or the trout-pool down in the woods. What 
an opportunity for a teacher who knows, and who, know- 
ing that a boy's spirit is as shy as a woodsprite, draws 
that spirit to him with a tact that seems to draw nothing. 

And when the wander-lust comes on the boy, and he 
wishes just to tramp, to see nothing and nobody in par- 
ticular, but to be by himself for a while, he should have 
that privilege — nay, that right. A tramp through the 
woods and over the hills crystallizes many a fluid impulse 
or thought, brings to consciousness many a new one, 
unravels many a tangled mental skein, enables many a 
child to ''catch up" with himself, and brings him back to 
civilization with a glow on his cheeks and with his blood 
charged with oxygen; with a clearer brain, a purer heart 
a finer spirit and vision. 

Often in his tramps and in his qtiiet dreamings he walks 
with God, even when not conscious of it. Often, when 
communing with himself, God communes with him. Often, 
when battling with himself, God helps him. The deep 
silences are the vestibules where the Maker meets man 
in the making. 

Let the child go, then, and have his dreaming — his 
moods of silence and solitude. "When are these?" you 

162 



SOME NEGLECTED FACTORS 

ask. Watch him with love, and know when. He will 
go with joy. He will go upon the mountains and into 
the valleys of related things; and he will return with 
gratitude in his heart and with a new light in his eyes. 
It was in his day-dreams that Samuel heard; it was out 
on the hills that David could open his heart to wisdom; 
it was in the fields that the voices spoke to Jeanne. 

In the making of oiur cities and towns the children have 
been forgotten. The children's acre — the playground — 
has been filched from them; and the value of land in 
terms of money has so obsessed the hearts and minds 
of our man citizenship that the value of land in terms of 
healthy-bodied and healthy-minded youth has been 
overlooked. 

The results of this violation of the laws of child-nature 
are seen in that fearful product of the cities, the Apache — 
the embodiment of energies suppressed where they should 
have been directed, and run riot in wrong ways; in the 
"gang"; in weak bodies, in contracted chests, in physical 
and mental dullness and moral stupidity or degeneracy. 
The playless child — the child who does not know how 
to play — ^is one of the most pathetic of sights, and is in 
line to be the father of the weak-minded and the mother 
of the dependent. The energies of the play-deprived and 
play-denied child, if there be in him the virility of the 
race, will be suppressed in only one way — ^in his play; for 
they will certainly break forth in other ways that mean 
reformatories, penitentiaries, policemen, and courts. 

These results are at last forcing themselves on the 
attention of the nation. The awakening in some of the 
cities and towns is in every way encouraging, for it means 
a vigorous start and is the prophecy of a steady, healthy 
growth of sentiment. 

Play is instinctive; it is as much a law of nature as 
growth, for it is an essential part of growth. Without play 
no animal can be or become normal in its functions. 

163 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

Play is not just *'play" in the sense of being an unneces- 
sary sort of pastime or amusement. It is a necessity of 
life. The dumb child is no more abnormal than the 
playless child. It is as senseless, as cruel, and as wrong 
to forbid play (and it is forbidden when the opportunity 
is filched) as it is to forbid speech. 

In the rural districts the opportunities for play are of 
course far greater than in the towns and cities; but the 
wide-spread belief that the only value of play lies in the 
working of the muscles makes it difficult for people to 
realize the importance of ample playgrounds at the school 
as an essential part of the educative process. 

" I don't send John to school to play. I send him to be 
educated. I can give him plenty of exercise at home" 
(meaning the wood-pile and the plow) is a typical attitude. 

The agitation for playgrounds in the rural districts and 
the insistence that it is essential to John as a part of his 
education are awakening the people to the importance of 
playgrounds. The fact that work-exercise of the muscles 
is good, but does not take the place of play-exercise of the 
muscles, is becoming better known. The wood-pile and 
the plow are a good training for John's muscles and 
character, provided he doesn't get an overdose; but to 
substitute these for play-exercise is to deprive him of 
physical, mental, and moral health, and to run the risk of 
making him surly and unsocial. 

Play is usually expressed by games; and those games 
which best strengthen body, mind, and character are the 
best. A game which injures body, mind, or morals is, of 
course, vicious. 

Physically, an outdoor game should give free play to 
the muscles, make supple the back and limbs, and de- 
velop deep breathing. Morally, a game should develop 
initiative, a sense of justice, honor, and fair dealing. 
It necessitates restraint, consideration, good manners, 
truthfulness, a mastery of self, the capacity to follow and 

J 64 




A KANSAS SCENE 




A MAY-POLE DANCE, LAKE COUNTY, OHIO 




A children's FREE-FOR-ALL RACE, IN NEBRASKA. (By the COUrtesy 

of the International Committee, Y. M. C. A.) 
Organizing Play 



SOME NEGLECTED FACTORS 

obey, and, therefore, to lead and control. Mentally, a 
game should develop concentration, close attention, alert- 
ness, the ability to decide quickly and accurately, good 
judgment, imagination, memory. Many a successful life 
is based on play experiences. 

In play there should be instruction and direction. 
Great tact is needed — nowhere is it more essential. The 
instniction and direction should be entirely informal. 
The teacher must not be over the children, but with them ; 
and if officiousness cannot be laid aside, the teacher 
should be. Spirit and spontaneity are the soul and body 
of play, and these wilt and die in the presence of Jupiter 
Pedagogus or Stern Juno. Leading-strings are not in 
order on the playground. 

"Go and play!" is sufficient in command but deficient 
in instruction. There are so many good games, and often 
the children know so few. They need a more varied play- 
diet than they usually get. As a rule, those games which 
have stood the test of time are best. A few good ones are : 
The Bird Catcher, Klondike, Skip Away, Jumping Rope, 
Cat and Mouse, Leap Frog, Anthony Over, Roly Poly, 
Hide and Seek, Finding the Switch, Prisoners' Base, Fox 
and Geese, Old Cat. 

The playgrounds should be so arranged as to give all 
grades of children recreation during the day. The re- 
cesses need not come at the same time for all. But, as they 
usually do, there should be play spaces for the smaller 
children and other spaces for the larger children, and 
play spaces for several different play groups at one time. 
Unless this provision is made the smaller children and 
the timid — the ones who most need development by play — 
will be crowded out. 

If a sufficient acreage can be secured — as in most rural 
communities — and there is no community pla37ground it 
is very desirable to have this provided for at the school. 
The school thus becomes more of a community center. 

i6s 



THE WOEK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

Land is steadily increasing in value everywhere. 
School boards and the communities they represent should 
therefore be constantly on the lookout for the opportunities 
to purchase land for playgrounds. In some cases, espe- 
cially in villages and small towns, a good school is already 
established, but is lacking in play space, and none can be 
obtained next to the school. In such instances play- 
grounds should be purchased elsewhere as a part of the 
school equipment for educating the children. There is 
just as much reason for purchasing and building play- 
grounds for educating the children as there is for purchas- 
ing material and building a schoolhouse. A school pro- 
gram that does not definitely include organized and 
directed play is lopsided. 

School athletics are happily coming into vogue in a large 
number of country schools — notably in the consolidated 
and union schools. But there is no reason why they 
should not become a regular part of the school program 
of any school. And plays and games now abound that 
give opportunity to all the children. The competition of 
athletic teams is becoming a feature of the rural school. 
In many of the states the schools of a district or of a 
county send teams to a central meet to compete for 
prizes. In some counties these meets are the events of 
the year, and attract thousands of visitors. Several of 
the state departments issue bulletins containing rules and 
descriptions of plays, games, and athletic contests. One 
of the best of these is issued by the Bureau of Education 
of the Philippine Islands,* and is in itself an illustration of 
the extent and value of play and games in the public 
schools. 

Every location for school-buildings should have trees, 
and if they are not already there the layout should be 

1 Bulletin No. 40. Athletic Handbook for the Philippine Pub- 
lic Schools. 

166 



SOME NEGLECTED FACTORS 

planned with them as a part of it. The children should 
always have a hand in planting every tree and in caring 
for those already on the grounds. It is not unnatural for 
children to neglect or injure trees in which they have no 
sense of ownership. A boy does not hack a tree or other- 
wise injure it because he is "bad." He does it because he 
is thoughtless. But why should he be thoughtful about 
something that his thought or attention has not been 
called to? He wishes to let out his pent-up energies; 
what material shall he use? Every way he turns is the 
sign-post, ''Don't!" He hunts for something he can do. 
Pent-up energies cannot be used through channels of 
dofiHs. 

The same principle applies to flowers and grass. At 
every school a reasonable — not a large — amount of space 
just in front, and usually a narrow strip around the sides, 
of the building should be sacred to grass and flowers and 
shrubs. They should be planted and kept in order by the 
children, working under the guidance of one who knows 
how to beautify the grounds. In the same way walks 
can be built and kept in order. The custom in many 
places of devoting a large part of the school-grounds to 
flowers and grass is an unfortunate one, as the children 
become discouraged in trying to care for them, and they 
are deprived of that much play space. 

The front of a school-building is not the place for play ; 
the grounds are made to look bare, and the appearance of 
the most beautiful building is seriously marred by an ill- 
kept or bare front yard. 

One principal writes of his school that last year "two 
beautiful plots were planned and executed in the school- 
yard, and to-day two gardens show the work of the 
children in helping to make and keep the school-grounds 
beautiful." 

A teacher, v/riting of her first experience at a school, 
says: 

167 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

I had been employed to do the primary work. When I 
reached the school-yard and saw that there were about four 
acres of school property, yet directly in front of the school was a 
basketball-ground on which it seemed a sprig of green had never 
grown — a real clay spot — I felt homesick. 

Everything in nature seemed to preach to me that it was 
really a beautiful spot; it just lacked a little human nature, and 
in the mean time the human world would get as much benefit 
as the plant world. 

I suggested to the principal that the basketball-ground be 
changed to the back of the campus and that the front yard be 
beautified and be used especially for developing the esthetic 
taste of pupils. He said: " yes, we'll change the ball-grounds, 
but you could never get grass or flowers to grow on that spot, 
and then you'd never keep the children off. They'll pull all the 
flowers even if you succeed in getting them to grow." I said, 
''Well, if you say I may do it I'll risk it." " Certainly, certainly ; 
I have no objections," he said. As soon as we got things straight 
on the inside of school I began tc plan for the outside. I talked 
to the boys on what could be done to the yard. They said, 
"We'll help you if you want us, but the flowers will bloom here 
just in time to go on our graves." I said, "Well, it would be 
nice to have a hand in putting flowers on one's own grave, so 
we'll try." One boy brought a spade, one a shovel, one a pitch- 
fork, then we borrowed some tools and started. Our first task 
was to remove rocks and old bricks. The walks were very 
narrow, so every brick was taken up and the walk made so wide 
that there would be no excuse for walking on grass and flowers. 
We worked a little every day, and in a few days the chairman 
of the school board noted what we were doing, and he said: 
" Get any tools you need, and charge them to the trustees. You 
have an awful job before you, but I guess you can make some- 
thing of it." A very few tools were gotten. Some of the boys 
brought horses and plowed. It required plowing a number of 
times, and very hard work to break the soil, but we got it in 
condition for weathering during the winter. A near-by citizen 
saw what we were doing and said: "I'll send you a flower 
catalogue, and I want you to select the flowers you want. Inclose 
the list and catalogue to me, and I'll give you the flowers." He 

i68 



SOME NEGLECTED FACTORS 

gave twenty-seven rose bushes, four dozen hyacinth bulbs, and a 
great many other seeds. Another man gave five hundred 
jonquil bulbs. Two women sent cuttings, plants, and seeds for 
the yard. The plots were laid off and seeds planted at the right 
times through the late fall and winter. 

The man who gave the rose bushes said, "I am going to give 
the fertilizer when you are ready to plant your grass in April." 
Another man gave the lime, and a seedsman gave the seed. The 
boys plowed, cultivated, dragged, and rolled the seed-beds for 
grass. It was just exactly the right time to sow the seed. A 
rain was coming, and they must be gotten in before the rain. 
It was a holiday; a man could not be secured to sow them. 
The boys, two girls, and I sowed the fertilizer, lime, and seed, 
and it rained just as we finished. That summer the yard was as 
green as velvet, and we had flowers in profusion — too soon to go 
on our graves. 

It was just this first work, this strictly voluntary work, on 
the part of pupils and teacher that paved the way to our first 
year of school-garden and agricultural work. 

Every care should be used to have the entire school- 
plant — the buildings, the grounds, the interiors, and 
immediate approaches, the background — as beautiful and 
as attractive as possible. This will require much thought, 
constant attention, and sometimes a little money. The 
children will furnish the time and attention, if permitted 
and guided. There is no better way to train them than 
through their directed activities. 
j Beauty has great cultural value. In fact, an apprecia- 
tion of beauty is one of the essentials of culture. All 
children have an appreciation of beauty; and a little 
direction and encouragement will soon develop in them 
a passionate appreciation of beautiful things — trees, 
flowers, birds, streams, pictures, statuary, buildings, 
furniture; of beautiful music; of beautiful literature; of 
beautiful deeds. It is strange, then, that in our rural 
schools so little attention is paid to this phase of life. 
And it is especially disheartening to see some of those 

169 



THE WORK OF THE HURAL SCHOOL 

who insist on what they term a ** cultural" education sat- 
isfied with schools that are ugly, unkempt, and neglected 
inside and outside; satisfied with the utter neglect of the 
training of the children to appreciate and preserve beauti- 
ful objects. Certainly there is little that is cultural in 
an education that insists on the three R's and neglects 
beautiful buildings, beautiful pictures, beautiful books 
in the library, beautiful school-grounds, beautiful trees 
and flowers and grass, beautiful birds, and beautiful music. 

From a purely financial standpoint beauty is of immense 
value. The most hidebound embodiment of selfishness 
in a community knows that a beautifully kept place 
will attract more money than an ill-kept one. He knows 
that a home with beautiful trees is worth more than a 
home placed in a barren spot; that a home with flowers 
and shrubbery and a beautiful view is worth more than a 
similar home without these. And yet he generally resents 
the training of the children in the appreciation of beauti- 
ful things as an unwarranted extravagance. 

Paris has thousands upon thousands of visitors because 
it is beautiful Paris. And who travels across oceans and 
continents to see ugliness in California? 

The auditorium is increasingly becoming a feature of 
the school-building as the rural school increasingly be- 
comes the center for the social activities of the rural 
community. Wherever the school is conveniently located 
for community gatherings an auditorium or assembly- 
room should be included in the plans and specifications. 
In such cases, where the school-fund is insufficient, the 
cost of the auditorium will usually be shared gladly by the 
citizens. Even where the school is not the social center 
it should have a common meeting-place for the children 
of the neighborhood; the one-room schools should be 
constructed and equipped with this in view, and in a two- 
room building the partition between the two rooms 
should be a rolling-door, so that they may be thrown 

170 



SOME NEGLECTED FACTOKS 

into one when desired. The needs and advantages of such 
raeeting-places will be discussed at length in the chapter 
on "Consolidation and Transportation." 

Many communities are wisely including in their school- 
plant a shed or sheds in the rear of the school-grounds for 
horses and vehicles. This provision not only serves the 
adults when they drive in to community meetings, but 
it has been found that it almost invariably increases the 
attendance and the regularity of attendance. There is 
good reason for this. Children living at a distance can 
get to the school if they can ride ; on bad days they will 
come if they have a horse, but not if they have to walk. 
The owner of a horse and vehicle very naturally objects 
to having them stand in cold and rain. These sheds 
cost very little; often the patrons who desire to send their 
children from a distance will furnish the necessary ma- 
terials. The sheds should be built by the school board 
or trustees in order that they may be uniform and of 
adequate construction. 

The study of school planning — of the lighting, sanita- 
tion, ventilating, and proper location of school-buildings — 
has made great progress in recent years. In view of the 
fact that the science of school construction has been 
worked out to great perfection by specialists in school 
architecture it is inexcusable that so many buildings are 
erected throughout the country in disregard of established 
high standards. It pays to consult a competent and 
honest lawyer in regard to legal matters; it pays to con- 
sult a competent and honest physician in matters of 
health; it pays to consult an honest and expert apple- 
grower in regard to the planting and care of an orchard; 
it pays to consult an honest and expert agriculturist in 
regard to the raising of crops; and it pays to consult an 
honest and competent school architect — ^not merely an 
architect — ^in regard to a school-building. To save money 
by cutting off the architect's fees is as sensible as buying 

171 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

patent medicine to save a doctor's bill. It is the acme 
of ignorance, and is about as certain to turn out right 
as purchasing a ''gold brick." Moreover, to suppose that 
a man can draw correct plans for a schoolhouse because he 
is a contractor is on a par with getting a carpenter to pull 
a tooth because he can draw a nail. 

Most of the state departments of education now issue 
plans and specifications of school-buildings of one, two, 
three, and four rooms. These have lifted the standards 
of school-buildings throughout the country from the bare 
box type to a less unattractive style. But some of these 
plans and specifications are not correct, according to the 
best standards, either as to lighting, ventilation, or at- 
tractive appearance, and should not be sent out as models 
to be followed. In fact, some of them have no attractive 
features whatever, though they are printed as "models." 
A school-building should have but one standard, and that 
the ideal. It seems strange that, when so much accurate 
knowledge has been discovered and printed in regard to 
the proper location, size, style, lighting, ventilation, and 
sanitation of school-buildings, anything but the ideal 
should be tolerated. The United States Bureau of 
Education is hoping that in cooperation with the various 
state departments of public instruction it may be able to 
contribute toward making the best models universally 
available. 



X 

CONSOLIDATION AND TRANSPORTATION 

THERE are few rural-school workers to-day who have 
not accepted the theoretical advantages of consoli- 
dation and transportation. The multiplication of consoli- 
dated schools and transportation-wagons in all parts of 
the country has been one of the most striking of all the 
later developments in rural education. And yet there 
are thousands of trustees and superintendents and 
teachers who, while accepting the advantages of consoli- 
dation in principle, still beUeve that consolidation and 
transportation would not v/ork in their particular com- 
munities. It is true that there are still communities in 
the United States so sparsely settled that they need the 
one and two-room schools, and will need them for genera- 
tions to come, but these are rapidly becoming the excep- 
tional communities. More often than not the failure 
to put the principles of consoHdation into practice is due 
to timidity and fear of obstacles that are more imaginary 
than real. The literature on the subject of consolida- 
tion is so abundant and so easily accessible that it would 
be superfluous to repeat the general arguments in its favor. 
What school-workers want to-day, I find, is not general 
arguments; their almost invariable question is. How has 
consolidation worked in your state ^ and under what condi- 

1 Because of this demand, this chapter is Mr. Eggleston's account 
of the development of ConsoHdation and Transportation in Vir- 
ginia, where he was for seven years state superintendent of pubHc 
instruction. 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

tions have consolidation and transportation succeeded or 
Jailed? 

The term ** consolidated school" is used in this chapter 
to mean the merging of two or more schools into a central 
school. 

When consolidation and transportation were adopted 
as definite policies in Virginia they were greeted with the 
usual prophecies of certain failure. I suppose the same 
objections are raised everywhere. It is said that the 
people will not agree to give up their little near-by schools ; 
that the distances are too great for the children to reach 
the central schools without great hardship; that the 
roads are too bad to haul the children; that the children 
will freeze to death, or at least be frost-bitten, while wait- 
ing for the wagons or while being transported; and that 
the cost is too great. 

Each of these objections has been successfully met. I 
shall not attempt to take them up seriatim, but I hope to 
answer each objection while discussing this subject. 

During the fifth year of this policy we have over two 
hundred wagons running in all sections of the state, and 
under almost every possible condition. We have routes 
as long as eight miles and as short as two and a half 
miles. We have wagons on good roads and bad roads, 
on level roads and mountain roads, on rocky roads and 
sand roads, on macadam roads and red-clay roads. We 
have transportation- wagons of the latest and most modem 
type, and we have ordinary farm-wagons fitted up for the 
new and precious freight. We have one-horse and two- 
horse wagons, and in one instance we have a four-horse 
transportation-wagon — or "kid-car," as it is called— which 
hauls between forty-five and fifty children to school every 
day. In addition to this we have in one place in the state 
the use of a dummy line which hauls a large number of 
children back and forth each day. The railroad and 
electric lines are largely used, special rates being allowed 

174 



CONSOLIDATION 

the children. In some of the communities where there is 
consoHdation without pubHc transportation the children 
ride horseback or use private vehicles, wagons, buggies, 
and "jumpers." One little group of children drives a 
large calf to school. To encourage the children to use 
horses we build sheltered stalls at the rear of many of the 
school-grounds. 

Last fall I visited a new consolidated school in H 

County, and at some distance to the rear of the school- 
house I counted twenty-one horses in covered stalls eating 
their dinners. Five schools were merged into this central 
school, which is situated on seven acres of land. This is 
a coimtry school, and the farmers themselves inaugurated 
the movement for consolidation. To this school, as to 
most of the other consolidated ones, children will go a long 
distance, and in so doing will pass by the doors of smaller 
schools which they formerly attended and which in some 
instances have not been closed. Such schools soon starve 
for lack of attendance. The children desert them for the 
larger school. This is one method of closing them; and 
this is a sufficient answer to the objection that the people 
will not consent to give up their little schools. 

Is consolidation essential to a proper solution of the 
rural-school problem? I believe that it is, and I believe 
that this is now imiversally admitted among thinking 
people. This does not mean, of course, that we shall not 
always have the small school. In fact, so far as we can 
now see, we shall always have one and two-room schools, 
and a great many of them. But that the consolidated or 
central school has great advantages over the one-room 
school, in turning out its product in terms of efficient 
citizenship, is evident. 

Consolidation means much more than the mere grouping 
of a number of small schools under one roof ; it means much 
more than the usual grading of the children according to 
their capacities and advancement in the study of books. 

175 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

Its deeper and more significant meaning may be found 
in the fact that it makes possible a more dignified and 
beautiful structure, which in itself enhances the respect 
of the community for the school ; that it makes possible 
the school-garden and the agricultural plot and manual 
training and domestic science; that it makes easier the 
teaching of arithmetic, physics, chemistry, geography, 
history, language, and composition that look toward, and 
not away from, the farm and country life; that it makes 
possible the formation of children's debating societies, 
of cooperative industries for the women and for the men, 
and of citizens' leagues for the continued oversight and 
improvement of the school; that, by bringing together 
larger groups of children and larger groups of citizens, 
it tends to socialize the isolated districts by taking the 
children and their parents out of their small and narrow 
environment and giving them an enlarged social vision 
and contact ; it therefore not only makes the boy and girl 
dissatisfied with a deficient and uninviting environment, 
but it can take the next logical and necessary step of giving 
the boy and girl both the capacity and the desire to return 
to that environment and improve it. 

The consolidated or central school tends to minimize 
the influence of the anti-social patron who, unless he can 
control the small school, may threaten to break it up by 
withdrawing his patronage — and it therefore tends to 
maximize the community life as against the individual. 

It is a great advantage of the large school over the small 
one that it is not dependent upon the whims and prejudices 
of one parent or even of several to keep it alive. To be 
able to break up the school by withdrawing or transferring 
four or five children is more power than some human 
nature can stand. A one-room school sometimes makes 
one man larger than the community. A larger school 
enlarges the influence of the community and tends to 
diminish a spirit of truculence on the part of the indi^ddual. 

176 



CONSOLIDATION 

The consolidated school also tends to group homes around 
or near the school, thus tending to break up the isolation 
of the large plantation. It makes easily possible the 
inclusion of auditoriums, thus providing meeting-places for 
the children and for the people of the commtinity, and 
encouraging the introduction of series of lectures, which 
are now confined almost entirely to the cities and large 
towns. The rural people need meeting-places for educa- 
tional, economic, and social purposes. The consoHdated 
school provides a proper center for such meetings. 

In other words, the deepest meaning of the consolidated 
school is that it tends to socialize community life; it 
tends to break up unsocial and anti-social tendencies. 
Its very erection is a form of cooperation, which makes 
easier other cooperative efforts. If this consolidation of 
smaller schools, and therefore smaller communities, is 
accomplished solely by means of taxation, it is still a 
distinctly cooperative step, because it is the merging of 
these smaller school communities into a larger community. 
But in at least one-half, and probably in two-thirds, of 
the instances of consolidation in Virginia the people are 
asked to contribute from one-third to two-thirds of the 
amount by private subscription for the erection of the new 
consoHdated building and the purchase of the land. 
They are asked for two reasons; one is that the taxes, as 
a rule, are not sufficient to make the consolidation. The 
other is that all those who are induced to subscribe 
become much more interested in the welfare of the school. 

Let me give two or three illustrations of the use of the 
consolidated school as a meeting-place for community 
purposes, of the use of them as community centers. I 
know of a two-room school of about forty pupils in the 

little, sparsely settled county of C , which was erected 

last summer. It is provided with cloakrooms, with good 
Hghting, and with good ventilation. It is painted. It 
is pleasing to look upon. It is something to which every 
13 177 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

man and child in the community can and does point to 
and speak of with pride. It is situated on two acres of 
land, so that there is not only room for a nice front yard, 
but good playground for the boys and girls. This build- 
ing took the place of a little rectangular box with a 
roof on it, unpainted, badly lighted, poorly ventilated, 
provided with no cloakrooms, situated on a small plot of 
ground — a thing regarded with indifference and even 
contempt. The land for the new school was given by a 
gentleman who stated to me one month after it was 
open that he thought his farm had been increased in value 
at least two thousand dollars by the erection of the new 
building. The two schoolrooms have a folding partition 
between them. This partition can be rolled up, and an 
assembly-hall thus provided for neighborhood meetings. 
During the week-days the two rooms are occupied by the 
school-children. On Sundays, as there is no church in the 
immediate neighborhood, the ministers of the various 
denominations take turn-about to preach to the people 
in this double room, while during the rest of the day the 
school is used as a community Sunday-school for old and 
young. At other times the farmers or the ladies of the 
neighborhood can use the building for any purpose that 
has in view the improvement of the community. This 
school is eight miles from a railroad. 

One of the things that has surprised us is the effect 
of the consolidated school on enrolment and attendance. 
It had been predicted by prophets of evil that the con- 
solidated schools would cut down the enrolment and 
that the attendance would be even worse than in the 
smaller schools. We put our faith in the reports of other 
states that had tried consolidation and transportation; 
and, so far from being disappointed, we have been surprised 
at the showing made by the consolidated school. It has 
been much better than we expected. The following illus- 
tration is only one out of scores that might be mentioned. 

178 



CONSOLIDATION 

On the outskirts of a small village of about three hundred 
people in a sparsely settled county was a two-room build- 
ing of the old type. Sometimes there were enough chil- 
dren for two teachers, and sometimes there were not. 
The year before the consolidated school was opened 
there were forty-two children enrolled in the old building. 
It was determined to erect a building of six rooms and an 
auditorium. It was thought that it would take about eight 
or ten years of growth to fill this building. -There was so 
much opposition to closing the small schools two or three 
miles away from the village that the school authorities, 
aided by the state, decided to open the new school with 
four teachers and to do some high-school work, leaving 
the small schools open to those who wished to attend 
them. Although no public transportation was provided, 
there were during the first session one hundred and twenty- 
five pupils, and a fifth teacher was added. The new school 
had in its second year one hundred and thirty- two children 
and six teachers; in its third year it added a seventh 
teacher, and had an enrolment of one hundred and 
seventy-four pupils. A school-wagon was put on in the 
third year and hauls about thirty pupils. The small 
schools have died of starvation — that is, the pupils passed 
by them to attend the central school, and they were 
closed for lack of children. 

The new spirit that is put into the schools and into 
the community by the consolidated school is really the 
difference between life and death. In this school, for 
example, there is a spirit of progress that was entirely 
absent in the old schools; and the community which had 
never taken the slightest interest in school affairs under 
the old conditions now looks upon the new school with the 
greatest pride and interest and show^s a wilHngness at all 
times to improve school conditions. Then, too, the new 
school can do so much for the community. The help is 
mutual. Let me illustrate: 

179 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

The drinking-wells in that community have for genera- 
tions been the surface-wells running down some forty to 
sixty feet. In the rear of the school-yard a well was 
bored through earth for sixty feet and through solid rock 
forty feet to an abundant supply of pure water, a pump 
was put in, pipes were laid in the building, lavatories for 
the boys and girls were placed in the basement, and a 
drainage system inaugurated. The total cost, including 
the digging of the well, the machinery, the piping, the 
pressure-tank, and the lavatories, was less than five hun- 
dred dollars. Up to that time there was not a bored well 
in that county. The man who did this work states that 
he has never been able since he sank the well at the 
school to take his apparatus out of the county, and that 
he has been boring wells steadily, except on Sundays and 
on days that were too bad to work. It might be said that 
this could have been done under the old conditions. The 
fact is, however, it was not done. 

The spirit of improvement that came with the new 
building caused the organization of the patrons into a 
school-improvement league. This league has improved 
the three acres of school-grounds, has helped to install 
a school and community library, and to purchase a piano 
and pictures. It helped to put a nice fence around the 
school-grounds. 

The principal and boys put down concrete sidewalks 
around the school, and this started concrete walks in the 
village. The school and the school-yard looked so pretty 
that the County Board of Supervisors planted a privet 
hedge around the court-house grounds, which were near 
by. The principal and the boys secured tools for a work- 
shop in the basement, and at a small outlay the equipment 
was purchased for framing pictures. This is good manual- 
training work, besides which the boys get from it good 
lessons in language, arithmetic, and geometry. The pic- 
tures are framed at a small margin of profit, and the result 

i8q 



TRANSPORTATION 

is that a large number of good pictures have been resur- 
rected and nicely framed, and large numbers of new 
pictures have been purchased, framed, and hung in homes 
for many miles around. A com club in the school cap- 
tured every prize last year offered by the county fair. 

It would be easy to mention fifty instances similar to 
this one. 

Where transportation- wagons are used to haul the chil- 
dren to the new consolidated school the increase in attend- 
ance has in many cases been phenomenal; in fact, it is the 
custom now in the state when building a consolidated 
school to include from one to three rooms more than seem 
to be needed. They are almost invariably filled, either 
at once or in two or three years. In one community, for 
example, two small schools were merged into a central 
school of four rooms, and two transportation-wagons were 
started. In a few weeks the demand for seats in the 
wagons was so great that a third wagon was started, and 
a few weeks later it was necessary to put on a fourth 
wagon. Before the session was out the school authorities 
had begun to figure on adding two new rooms to the new 
four-room building. The two old schools of one room 
each had a combined enrolment of fifty children. 

Another thing that has surprised and gratified us has 
been the return to school of a large number of the older 
boys and girls who, after a few years' attendance at the 
little schools, had quit and gone to work. There have 
been many very striking instances of this, and I do not 
hesitate to say that large numbers of boys and girls who 
had quit school and who returned to school when the new 
consolidated schools were opened are now attending state 
normal schools and colleges, while many others have 
taken three or four years of good high-school work before 
going out into life. 

The consolidated school with auditorium gives an un- 
rivaled opportmiity to the school to serve the community 

i8i 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

in a very practical way. I believe that it is the duty of the 
school to help make the economic life of the community 
profitable while it is raising the intellectual and moral 
life. 

The consolidated school can be of great help to the 
farmers and their wives in many ways. Here is one way : 
the State Department of Agriculture holds farmers' 
institutes throughout the state. These usually last one 
day at each place. We have induced this department to 
hold a large number of these institutes in the auditoriums 
of the new consolidated schools, thus bringing the farmers 
and their wives to these schools and giving them an il- 
lustration of how the schools may be used for the benefit 
of the community outside of the regular school-book 
work. The agriciiltural college holds in various parts of 
the state what it calls "movable schools." These schools 
last about three days in each of these communities. 
Teachers from the agricultural college have charge of 
these schools; they are widely advertised; and every one 
of them is being held in some consolidated school. The 
farmers and the high-school boys, to the number of from 
fifty to three hundred, attend these three-day sessions, 
and are instructed by these teachers as to improved 
methods of agriculture, such as seed-selection, subsoiling, 
fertihzing, corn-growing, potato-growing, grass-growing, 
apple-raising, the spraying of orchards, the feeding of 
cows, poultry-raising, etc., etc. It is indeed ''a new thing 
in Israel," so far as this state is concerned, for the school 
to become the center of such meetings and to do such 
work in behalf of the community. 

We have found, too, that it is a comparatively easy 
matter to organize the boys and girls of a consolidated 
school into com clubs, poultry clubs, pig clubs, garden 
clubs, etc. And in many of our consolidated schools the 
children have clubs of one sort or another and are doing 
excellent work in them. It is so much easier to organize 

182 



TRANSPORTATION 

them and it is so much easier to look after them after 
the organization is effected. Of course the same thing 
appHes to Hterary and debating clubs, and scores of these 
are in active operation throtighout the state since the 
consolidated schools have been started. Every consoli- 
dated school with as many as three rooms does some high- 
school work. This brings in the larger boys and girls 
who cannot be found in the one-room schools. 

There is no use talking about making the small school 
the commimity center unless the population is so sparse 
that it is not practicable to merge this small school into 
a larger school. The consolidated school has an unrivaled 
opportunity to make country life socially attractive. 
Not only have debating clubs been organized in our con- 
solidated school, but a system of lectures has been or- 
ganized for many of these schools to the lasting benefit 
of the community. Then, too, the children in these con- 
solidated schools eagerly avail themselves of the oppor- 
tunities to join athletic and play clubs. These have 
become an essential and attractive feature of our school 
work in the small towns, villages, and country districts. 

We reaHze that the small schools should stand for all 
these essential things that have been mentioned, but we 
have found out that it is so much easier to turn these 
ideals into realities through the consolidated school. To 
accomplish these things in the one-room school usually 
means a maximum of effort to get a minimimi of results. 

In the average one-room school the teacher has from 
thirty to forty classes in the six-hour school-day. This 
gives ten minutes to a recitation. Thousands of teachers 
in the South have not even eight minutes for a recitation; 
sometimes not over five. The time of the children is 
thus largely wasted. Tens of thousands of children sit 
in the schoolroom day after day, waiting two or three 
hours for the next recitation: thousands of these get dis- 
gusted and quit, and who can blame them? No one 

J83 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

knows these things better than the teachers, who are 
powerless to remedy the conditions. These facts alone 
are sufficient to demand a change from the crowded one 
and two-room schools to something better, and to demand 
a merging of the small schools that are near enough to- 
gether to be consolidated. 

The increased number of children begets an enthusiasm 
and interest that are often lacking in the small schools. 
It is universally conceded that the behavior of the children 
is much better; there is more earnestness of purpose ; the 
children are mentally alert; they are more ambitious, 
because the higher grades give them something to look 
up to; they pay more attention to their personal appear- 
ance and dress better. In fact, complaint has been made 
by some parents that the children demand better clothes 
for attendance at the better schools. One parent could 
not see why his boy desired a fairly good suit of clothes 
and good shoes to attend school, when he had been attend- 
ing the one-room school in his overalls and brogans. 
The boy stated to his father that he did not object to 
wearing his working-clothes before school and in the after- 
noons when he returned home for work, but that he did 
not feel comfortable in these working-clothes in the new 
school. The boy was, of course, right. 

It is the universal testimony that the progress of the 
pupils in the consolidated school is rarely less than twice 
as rapid as in the one-room school. This is because the 
children can be better graded and because the teachers 
can give more attention to them than in the one-room 
school, unless this one-room school has very few children 
in it. 

It is much easier to secure a good teacher to fill a va- 
cancy in a large school than in a small one. She has more 
association with other teachers ; her work is far less trying 
and wearing; she has the satisfaction of seeing the chil- 
dren make better progress ; and she stands a better chance 

184 



TRANSPORTATION 

of specializing — something that every teacher wishes to 
do. This attitude of the teacher toward the small, iso- 
lated school is no inconsiderable factor in the rural-school 
problem. The time has passed — let us hope forever — 
when the economic conditions in our rural communities are 
such that the community can dictate the wage and be 
satisfied with a poor school-building and always find worthy 
applicants to teach. A new condition has arisen, and 
to-day the competent teacher can — and in an increasing 
number of counties and cities does — dictate that the wage 
and the schoolhouse shall be good. 

There are ten objections to consolidation and transpor- 
tation—eight of these are imaginar}^; the other two are 
real. These two are bad roads and sparsity of school 
population, and they are applicable in only a compara- 
tively few communities in this state, although 76 per cent. 
of our people live outside of incorporated places (and 
everything in this state is incorporated that has as 
many as five hundred people). 

There are one hundred counties in Virginia; in at least 
ninety of these there are communities where one-room 
and two-room schools can be merged into larger schools, 
and the children be transported to the great advantage of 
the children. 

Most of our roads are bad in winter, but it takes even 
worse roads than the average to prevent transportation of 
children. Good roads and good schools should go to- 
gether; but, since neither exists in many of our commu- 
nities, the advocates of good schools have gone right 
ahead consolidating, knowing from the experience we 
have already had that good roads will follow. We have 
refused to be deceived or misled by the frequently 
uttered statement that consolidation of schools and 
transportation of children should wait until good roads 
are established. It is true that some of the roads are 
bottomless, and consolidation and transportation in such 

i8s 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

cases are out of the question. It is also true that good 
roads make it easier to have consolidation and transpor- 
tation, provided the people are intelligently interested 
in their schools, but experience and observation show that 
good schools do not necessarily follow good roads. In 
fact, in this state, with the exception of one county, the 
counties which have the best roads have schools which 
are below the average in quality and above the average 
in quantity. 

On the other hand, experience and observation have 
shown that good roads do follow good schools. This is 
especially the case when the schools have been consoli- 
dated. The consolidation of schools invariably brings 
to bear on the county road authorities great pressure for 
the improvement of the roads leading to such schools. 
I could mention numbers of counties where this has been 
demonstrated beyond a doubt. In one school district 
where all the schools except one were merged into a 
central school and four wagons started, the agitation for 
good roads grew so pressing that the people of the dis- 
trict met in the auditorium of the central school and by 
unanimous vote asked that their road taxes be raised, and 
that all the roads in the district should be improved, and 
that this improvement should begin at the schoolhouse. 

How did we begin in order to get the people into a 
frame of mind favorable to consolidation? In two ways: 
by having laws enacted that have encouraged consolida- 
tion, and by a campaign of education to convert the 
people from an attitude of hostility or indifference to an 
attitude of S3rmpathy and cooperation. I may add that 
we did not wait to get the whole state, or a whole county, 
or a whole district into a favorable attitude before begin- 
ning. We picked out communities where we believed con- 
solidation would be of benefit, and then proceeded to reason 
with the people of these communities. The movement 
is now well under way, and we find it less and less difficult 

i86 



TRANSPORTATION 

each year to bring the people to see its advantages. There 
are still hundreds of communities that would strenuously 
oppose such a movement, but there are dozens and scores 
of communities with an open mind on the subject, which 
two or three years back were earnestly opposed to it. In 
fact, it is not infrequent that communities initiate move- 
ments for consolidation and call upon the school authorities 
to show them how to proceed. 

Even after the wagons have run a year or two, however, 
the voice of the chronic kicker may still be heard in the 
land, and care must be taken to prevent the school 
trustees from mistaking a large quantity of noise for a 
high quality of noise, and taking the wagons off before 
the new plan becomes a permanent habit. If left to the 
children, 95 per cent, of them would favor the continuance 
of the transportation-wagons. Eternal vigilance is the 
price of permanent progress. It is a significant fact that 
for every ten wagons started hardly one is taken off, and 
when it is taken off it is invariably because there is a lack 
of funds or because it should not have been started, owing 
to the wretched condition of the roads. 

In some instances the people have preferred to furnish 
the transportation for their own children, as they were 
afraid that pubUc transportation would increase their 
school taxes. It is easy to see that in a short while the 
very people who are opposing higher taxes for school, and 
who now prefer to furnish their own transportation, will 
see that this is costing them more than the extra tax 
for public transportation. If we find that a community 
can be persuaded to consolidate schools and prefers 
private transportation we encourage the first step. The 
next step will inevitably follow. It will not take twenty 
parents long to see that it is much cheaper to hire two or 
three wagons at public expense to haul fifty to seventy- 
five children than it is to use twenty horses and twenty 
buggies for the same purpose. 

187 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

In some instances where we find a mere handful of 
children subjected to hardship by the consolidation of 
schools the local school authorities arrange to pay a patron 
to haul his own children or to haul his own and his neigh- 
bors' children, allowing him a certain per diem on atten- 
dance, not on enrolment. On some routes the large boys 
who are attending the schools drive the wagons. As I 
stated above, we have no iron-clad rules. The sole 
object is to get the children to the most efficient school 
at as low a cost as is consistent with reason and comfort. 
In a few cases only the larger children attend a consoli- 
dated school while the smaller children attend the small 
schools near their homes. 

While I am writing this there comes to mind the ex- 
perience of the school trustees and superintendent in one 
county. They persuaded the patrons to allow them to 
try two wagons for a month on the understanding that if 
they were not successful they would be taken off. They 
were to be given a fair trial. There was not sufficient 
money to buy regular transpor tat ion- wagons, so two farm- 
wagons were purchased and covered and fixed with seats. 
In two years there were fifteen wagons running in that 
county, and people in several sections were complaining 
because wagons were not provided for their children. In 
one community in this county, when the school trustees 
announced that they would put a wagon on a certain 
route, a lady on that route who had been sending her 
little girl to the near-by one-room school employed an 
attorney to prevent the trustees from carrying out their 
nefarious purpose of breaking up the one-room school 
and hauling the children to the consolidated school. 
The trustees won the case, and the wagon was put on. 
At the beginning of the next session, when it was rumored 
that the trustees might take the wagon off the route, owing 
to lack of funds, this same lady employed the same at- 
torney to prevent the trustees from taking the wagon off. 

i88 



TRANSPORTATION 

One of the most striking things we have observed is 
that almost invariably when a new consolidated school 
is erected the patrons demand a better quality of teaching 
than they have had in the small schools. I think the 
psychological explanation of this lies in the fact that the 
average man forms his estimate of the school by the out- 
side appearance of the school, which is the only part of 
it he usually sees; and if he has a contemptible-looking 
schoolhouse in his neighborhood he becomes indifferent 
to the quality of the teaching on the inside; whereas, if 
the outside of the schoolhouse is attractive to him, if 
he has put money into this school by private subscription 
and by increased taxation, he wishes the quality of the 
teaching to be at least equal to the quality of the building, 
and he wishes to get his money's worth. 

It remains to consider the cost where consolidation and 
transportation are now in vogue, and the cost in the same 
communities when the old conditions prevailed. The 
stock objection that the public roads will not permit 
consolidation and transportation, and that the people 
will not favor the change, has been ruthlessly overthrown 
by the actual use of over two hundred wagons in over 
one-third of our counties, with every variety of roads — 
good, bad, and indifferent. The people in these com- 
munities have placed an unqualified indorsement upon 
the change from the old conditions to the new; but the 
last remaining objection — the cost of the wagons and 
drivers — ^which has looked so formidable, and which is 
still a cause of battle in many of our communities where 
consolidation and transportation are on trial, has been 
shown in at least half the cases to be a man of straw — a 
scarecrow. 

In the gross amount of money expended it does, as a 
rule, cost more. That fact might as well be faced; but 
it has been proved beyond contradiction that the cost per 
month per pupil in daily attendance in the small schools 

189 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

before consolidation is greater than the cost per month 
per pupil in daily attendance after the consolidation of 
these schools. As one of my coworkers has said, "A four- 
teacher school with two wagons will cost more money in 
the aggregate than five one-teacher schools without the 
wagons, but the five one-room schools cost more per child 
upon the basis of daily attendance." And he adds this 
very pregnant statement, which should be preached every 
day, and all day, until it burns itself into the hearts and 
brains of people everywhere: *'It is the daily attendance 
that counts!" 

The only correct basis on which to figure the cost of a 
school is the attendance of the children. It is the child 
present in, not the child absent from, the school that 
counts in reducing the cost. It is the child absent from, 
not the child present in, the school that counts in increas- 
ing the cost. Any other basis of estimating the cost is 
absurd and utterly foreign to the real purpose of school 
levies. If it costs forty dollars a month to employ a 
teacher to hold a school enrolling twenty children, how 
much does it cost per month to educate each one of these 
children? "Two dollars," says some one. But this 
answer is probably incorrect. The cost to educate de- 
pends upon the attendance of the children. If the enrol- 
ment is twenty, and the daily attendance is ten, the cost 
to educate each child is four dollars per month. The 
other ten are not being educated. 

*'But," says some one, ''the community has to pay the 
forty dollars to the teacher, anyway; so it's the same 
thing so far as the community is concerned." 

There are two answers to this statement, either of 
which seems to me to be sufficient: 

First, in the large majority of the communities, in this 
state at least, the community doesn't pay the forty dol- 
lars. The state (which in this matter means the cities, 
the few rich counties, and the corporations) pays a goodly 

190 



TRANSPORTATION 

part of it, and pays it on a basis of the children in the 
community, whether they attend school or not. 

Second, it is a sufficient answer to the above statement 
to point out that if "forty dollars have to be paid, any- 
how," common sense should dictate that the community 
see that every dollar shall serve its purpose, shall attain 
its object, shall not be wasted. The object is not to 
expend the forty dollars, but to get the children into the 
schoolroom. That method which is the most practicable 
for getting the largest number of children into a good 
school for the greatest number of days is the cheapest. 

If this argument is a sound one, if the school is the 
place where the child, and not the money, is the central 
consideration, then the schools will be consolidated and 
children transported, not because money will be saved 
thereby, but because the children will be benefited thereby. 
If the children are benefited it is economy to make the 
change, even though the cost is greater. Economical 
expenditure is expenditure; it isn't hoarding. Econom- 
ical expenditure is not parsimonious expenditure; it is 
wise expenditure, or expenditure without waste. That 
school economy is ideal which gives to the children the 
largest opportimity and spends every dollar that is 
necessary for that purpose. 

Two years ago one of my assistants worked out a table 
of certain communities in which, before consolidation, the 
number of teachers was 56; after consolidation, 45. The 
gain in enrolment was over 50 per cent. Another table 
showed that in a given number of communities the em-ol- 
ment before consolidation was 3,185 children; after con- 
solidation 4,814 children, a gain of 1,629 ii^ enrolment. 
For the same communities the average attendance before 
consolidation was 2,107; after consolidation it was 3,617. 
This included consolidations both with and without public 
transportation. Where public transportation exists the 
average daily attendance is, of course, very much better. 

191 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

While I was dictating these statements I received a 
letter from a school trustee in which he says: 

Our school district has seven schools consolidated into one 
school, and seven schools unconsolidated. The seven uncon- 
solidated schools have enrolled (this session) 162 pupils, with 
an average daily attendance of 125. The seven consolidated 
schools [and by this he means the one large school into which 
the seven small schools have been consolidated] have enrolled 
264 pupils, with an average daily attendance of 240. The 
character of work done in the consolidated school is far superior, 
and, besides, 41 of these pupils are doing high-school work. The 
central school is doing twice as much work as the seven separate 
schools. 

It may be of interest to state here that this school after 
one year of consolidation had to double its capacity. 

The public transportation of children means better 
behavior on the way to and from school. The drivers of 
the wagons are made responsible for the conduct of the 
children. These drivers are chosen with great care. In a 
transportation-wagon a boy is not permitted to smoke or 
chew tobacco; he is not permitted to use profane or 
unbecoming language; he must not indulge in bullying. 
If he fails to conduct himself in a gentlemanly manner he 
is put out of the wagon and must walk until he can give 
assurances of proper conduct. And when their daughters 
are safely ensconced in the transportation-wagons under 
the protection of good men there need be no uneasiness 
on the part of fathers and mothers lest some dreadful 
calamity befall them. 

Do not for one moment suppose that this ''Jordan is 
an easy road to travel." It is not. But the more we 
travel it the easier it gets. There is always a lion in the 
path until we begin to travel it. This thing of getting 
the people into a favorable attitude toward the consolida- 
tion of schools and the transportation of children is hard 
work, but it is none the less glorious. 



XI 

THE TEACHER WHO IS THE CITIZEN-MAKER 

IT is an old proverb, and as true as old, that ''the 
teacher makes the schooV ; which, being interpreted, 
means that the future of our democratic citizenship 
depends upon the ability, training, and patriotic devotion 
of the men and women to whom the homes of the nation 
have intrusted the education of their children. To say 
that the success of the public school as the instrument 
for the transformation of the raw material of childhood 
into an efficient citizenship depends upon the efficiency 
of the teacher is so obviously true that no one is likely 
to question it. 

Why, then, have we not placed a discussion of the teacher 
as the citizen-maker at the beginning of this book? The 
answer is that in spite of the splendid achievements of 
rural-school teachers scattered throughout the country, 
in spite of individual instances of heroic devotion to which 
the progress of rural education during the past decade 
is so largely due, rural-school teachers as a body have 
not been measuring up to the responsibilities that the 
nation has laid upon them; and there is small hope that 
they will so measure up imtil their outlook upon the 
problems and opportimities of rural education has changed. 
This conclusion is justified, not only by personal observa- 
tion in many states, but also by the statistics of the 
United States Bureau of Education, which show that the 
rural-school teachers, as a body, are a migratory flock, 
14 ^93 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

that a very small proportion of them *'stay put," as the 
phrase goes, for more than a session or two at a time — 
in other words, that very few of them hold their posi- 
tions long enough to become acquainted with their 
communities or to exert any lastingly beneficial influence 
upon them. 

Every one who has had any experience in rural educa- 
tion knows that there are scores, even himdreds, of excep- 
tions to this rule. Time and again one finds communities 
in which the majority of the teachers have worked faith- 
fully and well under trying conditions for five and ten 
and twenty years. But that such teachers are the excep- 
tions the facts recently published by Mr. A. C. Monahan, 
of the United States Bureau of Education, prove beyond 
question. The instability of the teaching force in our 
rural schools is most strikingly reflected in the intensive 
studies made by the State Superintendent of Public 
Schools in Missouri and by the State Board of Public 
Affairs in Wisconsin. The State Superintendent of Mis- 
souri found that of 9,883 teachers who were in charge 
of the one and two-room schools of his state during the 
year 1910-11, 6,804, or 69 per cent., were teaching their 
first year in the positions they then held; 2,071, or 21 
per cent., their second year; 860, or 7 per cent., their 
third year; 180, or 2 per cent., their fourth year; 67, or 
less than i per cent., their fifth year; and 72, or less than 
I per cent., their sixth or more than their sixth year. Of 
these 72, however, only 55 had taught six or more years 
in the same school in consecutive years. The average 
length of service of the Missouri school-teacher in one and 
two-room schools — the great majority of all rural-school 
teachers — is, according to the State Superintendent, one 
and four-ninths years, or 233 school-days. In 443 of these 
schools teachers were changed during the session. 

The Preliminary Report on Conditions and Needs of 
Rural Schools in Wisconsin — an educational document 

194 



THE TEACHER THE CITIZEN^MAKER 

that it would be well if every rural-school official and every 
legislator in the United States should read — states that 
of 128 teachers, canvassed in this intensive investigation, 
56 had taught in their present schools less than one year; 
39, one year; 20, two years; 9, three years; and 4, more 
than four years. Moreover, it was found that the great 
majority of these teachers had contracted to teach for 
one year or less. 

The investigation of the United States Bureau of 
Education leaves no doubt that with slight variations the 
facts in Missouri and Wisconsin are reproduced in prac- 
tically all of the states. 

Is it not obvious that so long as the rural-school teachers 
are here to-day and there to-morrow they can never be- 
come, in any true sense, the citizen-makers of the nation? 

When one seeks an explanation of these distressing facts 
one is told that the fault lies with the one-room school — 
that conditions will never change for the better imtil the 
one-room school is abolished. Certain enthusiasts invite 
us to adopt their slogan : The one-room school must go! 

Now, no one believes more earnestly than we do that 
consolidation should be effected whenever and wherever 
it will work to the best advantage of the children and the 
community. But there are thousands of communities 
in the United States where if the one-room school did 
"go" the children could not follow it. While great 
stretches of America are so sparsely settled as they are 
to-day, and as they are likely to remain for some decades 
to come, it is deliberate self-deception to believe that 
every one-room school can be abolished. We must look 
the facts squarely in the face and be guided by them. 

In 1 9 13 Mr. A. C. Monahan, of the United States 
Bureau of Education, published the results of a searching 
inquiry into the status of the rural schools in thirty-two 
states. He found that the ** total number of one-teacher 
schools is 80 per cent, of the total number of 183,824 

195 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

public schools in those states." On the basis of careful 
estimates Mr. Monahan concludes that the enrolment in 
the one-teacher schools is "37.6 per cent, of the total 
enrolment in all the public schools of the country, and 
60.2 per cent, of the total enrolment in all rural schools." 

While the multiplication of consolidated and union 
schools will -undoubtedly decrease this percentage, it is 
still obvious that for the next generation or two at least, 
from 30 to 40 per cent, of all children who live in the open 
country will remain in the hands of teachers in one- 
teacher schools. To say that " the one-room school must 
go" sounds impressive and shows a valiant spirit; but 
if the stability of the rural teaching force is dependent 
upon the elimination of the one-room school it is to be 
feared that true efficiency in rural education will be a 
sadl}^ long time coming. 

Again, it is said that the rural teaching force will never 
become stable or efficient so long as the rural-school 
buildings are badly constructed and poorly equipped, so 
long as the teachers are underpaid, so long as rural com- 
munities fail to provide decent and comfortable homes for 
their citizen-makers. Certainly, there is much truth in 
all of these declarations. The investigations of the 
United States Bureau of Education show that the rural- 
school teachers, and especially the teachers in the one- 
room schools, are wretchedly and disgracefully underpaid. 
The table printed at the top of the next page is eloquent 
on this point. A yearly salary of only three hundred 
dollars is a most ungenerous reward for the ability and 
devotion essential to the success of our rural schools. 
This same investigation of the United States Bureau 
shows further that the rural-school buildings are, as a 
rule, dingy, insanitary, badly lighted, miserably equipped. 
Moreover, the living accommodations provided for most 
rural-school teachers, especially in the open country, are 
a great bar to the development of teaching efficiency, 

196 



THE TEACHER THE CITIZEN-MAKER 



SCHOOL SESSIONS AND SALARIES 



ONE-TEACHER RURAL SCHOOLS 


ALL SCHOOLS, URBAN AND 
RURAL 


States 


Number 
of days 

in 
annual 
session 


Average 

monthly 

salary 


Average 
yearly 
salary 


Number 
of days 

in 
annual 
session 


Average 

monthly 
salary 


Average 

yearly 
salary 


Connecticut . . 

Colorado 

Illinois 

Indiana 

Iowa 


184 
141 

140 
160 

180 
170 
140 
117 
140 
90 
90 
130 
160 
119 

III 
116 


$47 
53 
42 

52 
38 
49 
44 
43 
43 
34 
31 
48 

31 

48 
46 
53 
47 
39 
55 


21 

33 
00 
20 

63 
II 

44 

53 

51 

44 

72 i 

21 

94 

73 

GO 

44 
63 
25 
03 


$434-33 
375-98 
317-74 
365-40 
309.04 
321.67 
400 . 00 
370.00 

304-57 
201.46 
219.26 
216.94 

143-73 
316.75 
368 . 00 
317-86 
321.50 
217.83 

320.57 


185 
156 
171 

147 
172 
164 
184 
171 
149 
123 

155 
100 
102 
147 
165 
138 
166 
130 
131 


$58.95 
63.22 

69.51 
65-93 
47.92 

63-36 
52.84 
56.01 
52.56 
42.50 
57-18 
67.82 
34-40 

52.95 
58.66 
80.13 

55-21 
40.90 

59-69 


$545 
493 
594 
484 
412 

519 
502 

478 

391 
261 

443 
339 
175 
389 
483 
552 
458 
265 
390 


20 
12 

31 

58 

IT 


Kansas 

Maryland . . . 

Michigan 

Minnesota. . . . 
Mississippi . . . 

Missouri 

New Mexico. . 
North Carolina 
North Dakota 
Ohio 


15 
38 

88 
57 
37 
14 
10 

44 
18 

OS 


Oregon 

South Dakota . 
Tennessee i . . . 
Texas 


90 
24 

85 
97 


Mean 

Median . . . 


137 
135 


$44 
44 


76 

44 


$307-51 
317-74 


150 
149 


$56.83 
56.01 


$430 
443 


60 



1 White schools only. 

We have a letter from Mr. J. C. Muerman, of the Field 
Service in Rural Education of the United States Bureau 
of Education, in which he states his belief that the absence 
of teachers' cottages or other proper homes for country 
teachers is a far more serious matter than is generally 
realized. 



I have been told by excellent teachers [says Mr. Muerman] 
that they much prefer the work in the rural schools were it not 

T97 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

for the fact that it is practically impossible to get a good board- 
ing-place. The wealthy farmers do not, as a rule, care to take 
the teachers except as an act of charity, and no self-respecting 
teacher wants to feel that she is imposing upon any one. The 
poorer families in the district are usually in a position where 
they cannot accommodate the teacher even if they so desire. 
I believe that this point is fundamental and is one of the 
main reasons why some of our best teachers are going out of 
rural work. ... A teachers' home is a recognized part of 
every school-plant in Switzerland — ^why not in the United 
States? 

It will be noted that the mean salaries paid to all 
teachers in these 19 states is lower by $1.28 than the 
mean for the entire United States. The mean of the 
monthly salaries for the rural one-room teachers in the 
19 states is $44.76. This is $12.07 less than the mean 
monthly salary for all teachers of the same states, and 
$13.35 less than the mean and $16.94 less than the average 
monthly salaries for all teachers in the United States. 
The mean annual salaries for these schools was $307.51. 
This is $123.09 less than for all teachers of the 19 states, 
and $137.03 less than the mean, and $176.72 less than the 
average for all teachers of the United States. In the 19 
states the monthly salary of the rural teacher is 78.7 
per cent, of the mean salary for the 19 states, but the 
annual salary of the rural teacher is only 73.7 per cent, 
of the mean annual salary for the 19 states. The greater 
difference in the annual salaries is due, of course, to the 
difference in the length of the annual session. The mean 
niimber of days in the annual session of the rural schools 
was 137, while for all schools of the 19 states it was 150, 
and for all schools of the United States 153 days. The 
average length of the session in 1909-10 for the United 
States was 157 days. 

It will be noted that the figures given at the bottom of 
the table are not averages, as averages could not be found 

198 



THE TEACHER THE CITIZEN-MAKER 

without the number of teachers being known. The 
mean, obtained by dividing the totals for each column 
by the number of states, is given; also the median found 
by arranging the states in order according to the length 
of session, or the amotmt of salary, etc., and taking for the 
median the middle figures. 

All these things are imfortunately only too true: we 
do need better rural-school buildings, better equipment, 
more adequate salaries, more attractive and adequate 
living accommodations. But how are these improve- 
ments to be brought about? No great service was ever 
rendered by men or women who faltered before such 
obstacles as these. And the problem of citizen-making 
in our rural schools will never be solved until the teachers 
themselves develop a new outlook toward their work, 
a new sense of patriotic consecration toward the great 
responsibilities the nation has laid upon them. 

"Investigation seems to show," says Mr. A. C. Mona- 
han, in the report of the investigation already referred to, 
"that where the greatest advance has been made in rural 
schools improved buildings and equipment have followed 
better teaching.*' 

Who that has followed the progress of rural education 
during the past decade can doubt that this is so? And it 
is because we are convinced that the future of rural 
education depends primarily upon the development of a 
new outlook, a new vision of the scope and possibilities 
of rural education on the part of the teachers in our rural 
schools, that we have placed the discussion of this new 
outlook before the discussion of the qualifications of the 
citizen-maker and the problems of normal training and 
field supervision. 

The modification of the course of study, its adjustment 
to the daily activities of the children as normal members 
of the community, is generally the first manifestation of 
a vital outlook on the part of the teacher. A wide- 

199 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

awake teacher, speaking of the excellent results she ob- 
tained by going to the community for the materials of 
study, says: 

In our overcrowded course of study it would be ridiculous to 
add more; so I work on the elimination-by-substitution plan. 
Girls and boys in the country need certain things; those in the 
city others. We must connect the school with the home. Hence 
we substitute for the ''stock work" (in the book) some real Hve 
country problems. We find that the industrial work (boys^ 
com clubs and girls' garden clubs) is a stimulus instead of a 
drawback to book work, especially when the children can see 
the relation between book work and their work. 

How many children see this relation? Whose fault is it 
that they do not see it? They do not make the course 
of study; and, sad to relate, in most instances they do 
not see any purpose in the course of study. Is this the 
fault of the children, or is it not rather due to the fact that 
there is really so little relation between the book work 
and their work? With the present course of study only 
a teacher with extraordinary courage and initiative can 
be expected to succeed. 

But it is not courage and initiative alone that are 
needed; great consecration is also needed — a consecration 
that can face the warped outlook of a decrepit tradition 
and refuse to accept defeat. 

In 1906 the president of a state normal school said to 
the graduating class: 

The world is full of people who can do the things that can be 
done; but rare are the people who do the things that cannot be 
done. The country school bf permanent influence has never 
been set up in our state, and rarely enough in any other state. 
Can you do it? 

One of the graduates thought she could. Returning to 
her county, she began her work in a coimtry neighborhood 

200 



THE TEACHER THE CITIZEN-MAKER 

eight miles from any railroad. The majority of the people 
of this community are renters. There was a two-room 
schoolhouse which an old gentleman and his wife and a 
very few other courageous people had persuaded the 
patrons to build instead of the wretched one-room affair 
to which the children had gone in previous years. 

The new teacher began by calling the patrons together, 
outlining her plan, and telling them that if she taught the 
school she would look to them for cooperation. A good 
deal of objection was raised. Her plan was something 
new. A few of the patrons were, however, ready to 
follow her. She asked for an extra teacher, for a school- 
cottage where she and her associate might live and where 
domestic science and household management might be 
taught, and for sufficient money to insure the necessary 
supplies. 

The extra teacher was secured, and three weeks after 
the opening of the school the principal called another 
meeting of the patrons to discuss the building of the 
cottage. They informed her frankly that they thought 
they had made a mistake, that the school was proving too 
expensive, and that the original plan woiild have to be 
modified. She answered with equal frankness that she 
was not surprised at their changed attitude, but that she 
had come to that neighborhood at their invitation and 
that she would not work for them unless they would 
abide by their agreement. She and her assistant would 
pledge fifty dollars apiece out of their salaries for industrial 
equipment and would undertake to raise the balance of 
the money if the patrons woiild build the cottage, support 
the industrial department, and agree to help the work. 
Her firm stand and her liberal offer so impressed the 
patrons that they agreed, although with many shakings 
of the head. 

The two-room building had cost one thousand dollars; 
the industrial cottage was built at a cost of three hundred 

201 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

dollars. Those who had agreed to support the school 
remained true to their contract, but others in the com- 
munity became hostile, and the consequent struggle was 
very hard. This, of course, made the management of the 
pupils hard. The principal and her assistant organized 
a school-improvement club. The boys and the men and 
women of this club met at the school and spent a day 
removing stumps and rubbish, scrubbing floors, and clean- 
ing up generally. 

During the first year several entertainments were given 
to raise money for pictiires and a library and also to get 
the patrons on speaking acquaintance with the school. 
The teachers took an active part in the Sunday-school 
work, and spent some weeks during vacation in visiting 
from home to home. A class was organized to interest 
the men who, as in most other communities, did not at 
first attend. For two years it was all the teachers could 
do to keep this class of men alive. After that it flourished, 
because the men were put to work at many things that 
were of practical benefit to the community. 

These teachers tried to get a grip upon every phase of 
life in the neighborhood, and, in fact, they went outside 
the neighborhood and got in touch with the people of the 
coimty-seat. The preachers, doctors, lawyers, and business 
men of the town helped in many ways to get over obstacles 
that seemed small, but that were very large in that little 
community. 

While the work was exceedingly hard, there were 
enough patrons recognizing the importance of it to invite 
the two teachers to return the second year. ** Very well," 
said the principal; "but you must build a third room to 
the school before the next term commences. I will be 
responsible for the third teacher's salary." The room was 
built. 

The school has never enrolled more than seventy-two 
pupils in any one year, because the district is small. 

203 



THE TEACHER THE CITIZEN-MAKER 

The principal suggested to the county board that a trans- 
portation-wagon should be provided for some children 
who were remote from any school ; that started transpor- 
tation in the coimty, and it has since been adopted by 
other schools. She saw what is now being seen everywhere, 
that a home for the teachers (either of one school or of the 
scattered schools in a district) and a few pupils should be built 
on the school-grounds. It was hard to secure board, and, 
besides, the teachers could not have at a boarding-house 
the freedom and quiet that is essential to efficient work. 
It took four years to get the people to see the need of that 
home for teachers. They looked upon it as a fad and a 
luxury, but the principal was determined. From the 
State Federation of Women's Clubs she secured a ram for 
pumping water, from another source she got the piping. 
She then showed an amount of courage that makes the 
proverbial "bearding a lion in his den" look like an inno- 
cent pastime. She persuaded a plimiber to help the 
teachers and pupils install the ram and piping. She 
secured good plans for the building. Even then she had 
to furnish three hundred dollars without security to get 
the cottage completed and furnished. 

But this was not all. An effort was made by the 
surviving opposition to break up the school by building a 
one-room school near at hand. Unfortimately, the county 
board of education decided in favor of the new school. 
This was so discouraging that the principal decided to 
resign, but now the trustees said, **You have the same 
strong friends you had in the beginning ; why resign now ? ' ' 
The teachers stayed. 

The work in this school had now won such a reputation 
that the board of trade of the county-seat presented the 
school with a check for five hundred dollars, which enabled 
the teachers to cancel the debt on the cottage and to 
equip it for domestic science. A water-tank with a 
capacity of five hundred gallons was installed. A laundry- 

203 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

room was bmlt and water piped to it. This laundry-room 
has not yet been eqtiipped. The piirpose of it is not only 
to have economical apparatus to lighten the work of those 
who live on the grounds, but chiefly to show the people of 
the community how the wives and mothers who are 
drawing water out of wells or bringing it from springs and 
doing their laundry work under adverse conditions may do 
the same work with very much less labor and time. It is 
proposed to have a laundry that can be duplicated in any 
of the homes of the county, or which can serve as a 
community laundry. 

The industrial work flourished from the first year. 
The children became so interested in it that all opposition 
on the part of parents ceased. At the end of the second 
year the patrons were asked to provide a piano. They 
did so. The patrons were now so much interested that 
they agreed to assume the financial responsibility for 
all three teachers. The county board pays each teacher 
forty-five dollars per month for five months. The 
patrons are doing the rest with some help from the out- 
side, and the school has never run less than eight months 
in a year. 

Such is the record of six years' work in a small country 
community which is below the average country community 
in financial resources. The school is now "a going 
concern. ' ' This country teacher and her associates did not 
wait for adequate salaries and an ideal equipment. 

Some of the best bench work we have ever seen is being 
done in a one-room school in Indiana. In answer to a 
question as to how he introduced the work and what 
the results have been, the teacher of this one-room school 
writes as follows: 

At the time I introduced industrial work in my school I 
was taking summer courses in manual training at Valparaiso, 
Indiana. The first winter after beginning my summer courses 

204 



THE TEACHER THE CITIZEN-MAKER 

I told the trustee if he would get a bench I would furnish the 
tools (as I had a set of carpenter tools), and we would try the 
experiment of introducing manual training in a one-room school. 
He secured a bench, and we went to work. I made the course 
elective for grades five, six, seven, and eight, and all the boys of 
those grades elected to take the work. 

We had no official course of study to follow. I made my 
own course. We made small useful articles, nearly all of which 
were on straight-line construction, making only one piece of 
curved-Hne work. I had two boys work each day, and in that 
way each boy had about two hours per week of bench work. 
They worked in the morning before school, then at recesses 
and noon. They could hardly wait for their turn, so interested 
were they in the work. 

The boys sent some of their work to the county-fair exhibit, 
and during the two years that I was there secured ten prizes. 

Since I started the work of manual training in the district 
school in 1909-10 there have been several one and two-room 
schools in this county that have taken up bench work, and this 
year I think more than half of the schools have had some bench 
work. 

This teacher did not wait for a new building and modern 
equipment, nor for an adequate salary. These things 
follow consecrated teaching; they rarely precede it. 

That school progress does not always follow adequate 
equipment, but does follow a teacher with consecrated 
purpose, is further shown by the following instance: 

The people of a small country village were persuaded 
by the state superintendent to erect a new building and 
to equip it for future growth. A principal was secured. 
He was a graduate of an academic college, and he con- 
ducted his classes in an academic manner. To him a 
school meant opening at nine o'clock, holding a certain 
number of recitations, and closing at four o'clock. The 
school was a failure. It did not grow. Another principal 
was secured. He also was a graduate of an academic 
college, but somehow he had a vision of what a school 

205 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

ought to mean to a community. He began by getting 
acquainted with all the patrons of the school, and, not 
satisfied with this, he kept extending his visits until he 
had pupils coming from all the homes for miles around. 
If a pupil was absent he made inquiry at once, and if the 
absence continued he went to see what was the matter. 
The people soon got the idea that if a child was absent 
there would be a visit from the principal. Not only did the 
enrolment grow, but the attendance began to get very 
close to the enrolment. Not satisfied with this, he ad- 
vocated transportation-wagons, and in the face of all 
sorts of objections he persisted. To-day the back yard 
of the ample school-grounds is filled with vehicles of all 
descriptions, including public transportation-wagons. By 
means of entertainments and a school league he has pur- 
chased all kinds of necessary equipment for the school. 
One hard-headed business man in the community says of 
this principal, "You know, our community never did get 
together on anything before. We were nearly always 
having a row about something, and were always split up, 
but I want to tell you that man has everybody working 
for the school, and we're learning how to pull together." 
Here is what a live teacher in a one-room rural school 
in Massachusetts was able to do. We give the story in 
the teacher's own words: 

In a one-room rural school in western Massachusetts sewing, 
cooking, carpentry, gardening, and typewriting were correlated 
with the other subjects. In sewing, the girls first learned all 
the stitches with which they ornamented lamp-mats and work- 
bags. The latter were made of Ada canvas and worked with 
peseidon silk. Then followed the practical application of the 
stitches. Dish-towels and table-napkins were hemmed; cook- 
ing-aprons, cooking-caps, and carpenters' aprons were made. 
Some of the upper-grade girls took measurements, drafted pat- 
terns, and made blouses for lower-grade boys. According to 
the daily time-table, half an hour a week was devoted to the 

206 



THE TEACHER THE CITIZEN-MAKER 

sewing. During this thirty-minute period the teacher could 
only give brief instruction regarding the advance work. Con- 
sequently, most of the sewing was done by the children in leisure 
moments. Each day an older girl was appointed monitor of a 
group. Usually this girl was very glad to go to the teacher a 
few minutes before the opening of school in the morning for 
criticisms and instructions in sewing. During the day, when 
any girl had satisfactorily finished her work — arithmetic or 
writing, as it might be — she took her sewing from her desk for 
seat work. If she needed help she went to the group monitor. 
During the noon-hour the teacher herself inspected the work 
done in sewing. 

The cooking in this rural school occupied an hour a week. 
At the beginning instructions in detail needed to be given the 
girls. But later they were able to work much alone. The recipe 
was written on the board, read by a member of the class, and 
discussed about five minutes with the teacher. A certain part 
of the lesson was assigned to each girl. Immediately after the 
discussion of the recipe the girls of the upper grades proceeded 
with their cooking, while the teacher heard lower-grade arith- 
metic or reading. A housekeeper was appointed, whose duty 
it was to see that ever5rthing was clean and in order after the 
lesson. This cooking class made jellies and preserves, cooked 
cereals, vegetables, soups, made bread, cakes, ices, beverages, 
and candies. A dinner was given to the parents, the following 
menu being served: 

Tomato Bisque Croutons 

Roast Beef Mashed Potatoes Green Peas 

Peach Pie Coffee Cheese 

Other dinners were served to the State Board of Education 
and visiting superintendents. The remuneration for the latter 
dinners, together with the proceeds from the school-garden, was 
used in purchasing pictures for the school. The ordinary 
lessons were made more interesting to the child because of 
correlation with the cooking. Spelling-words were taken from 
the recipes, which were also often used for writing-lessons when 
copied to put in booklet form. In geography the children were 
delighted to learn of the preparations of tapioca. It was 

207 



THE WORK OP THE RURAL SCHOOL 

interesting arithmetic to estimate the cost of a cake or a dinner 
and to find the per cent, gain on the diifferent dinners. 

While the girls enjoyed their work in cooking, the boys worked 
at the bench. After a study of the tools they made match- 
boxes, whisk-broom holders, coat-hangers, and bread-boards. 
Preceding the actual working of each problem, working drawings 
were made. In an old woodshed adjoining the schoolroom was 
the possibility of a model workroom. Accordingly, the eighth- 
grade boys estimated the amount of material needed, then 
sheathed the room. Because of projecting beams the walls 
had to be built out by ''two-by-fours," making a difficult propo- 
sition. Later these boys made a table for the typewriter. 
Whenever a window-pane was broken by a ball the unfortunate 
boy in good spirit got his tools and at once went to work to 
put in a new pane. The boys took up, put down, and adjusted 
the chairs and desks, making more room, yet seating more 
pupils. In these ways the boys became handy in the use of the 
tools of a carpenter and were prepared to help in the home as 
well as at school. 

All the gardening was done as busy work. A boy was ap- 
pointed as superintendent, and was held responsible for the work 
done during the day. Now and then at recess or a few minutes 
after school criticisms and suggestions were offered by the 
teacher. The older boys mixed the fertilizer used. Some very 
good arithmetic problems were evolved, as: 

How many pounds of fertilizer -are used per acre? 

How many pounds are needed for your garden-plot, which is 
17x67 feet? 

If you use 8/^ pounds nitrate of soda, 18 pounds acid phos- 
phate, and 6% pounds high-grade sulphate of potash, how many 
pounds of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash are used if 
i5>2 per cent, nitrate of soda is nitrogen, 14 per cent, acid 
phosphate is phosphoric acid, and 50 per cent, high-grade 
sulphate of potash is potash? 

If you used in 33 pounds of fertilizer 1.29 pounds nitrogen, 
2.52 pounds phosphoric acid, and 3/^ pounds potash, what per 
cent, of each was used? 

What kind of fertilizer did you use? 

In the school-garden were raised peas, radishes, lettuce^ 

208 



THE TEACHER THE CITIZEN-MAKER 

onions, swiss chard, beets, corn, and potatoes, half of which were 
scabby and half good. Some of the scabby ones were planted 
the next year after being treated with formaline solution, mixed 
at school. The treatment proved successful, for from the 
scabby seed sound potatoes were raised. For blight the boys 
treated the potato vines with Bordeaux mixture, also made at 
school. More problems, in weighing lime and sulphate of copper 
and in measuring the right proportion of water, were derived 
for the eighth-grade arithmetic. And so again in gardening, 
as in other industrial subjects in school, correlation made the 
other work more interesting. 

The question is: How can these subjects be taught in a rural 
school? There must necessarily be so many classes in the three 
R's. The keynote of the whole situation is in the words "seat 
and group work." Inculcate in the child a feeling of responsi- 
bility. Give him more freedom. Encourage team work. Make 
the schoolroom a home, not a workshop.^ 

If any one thinks that a one-teacher school with a wide- 
awake teacher cannot improve community conditions he 
should change his mind after reading the following ac- 
count of what a teacher is doing out in the open country 
in Minnesota. Again we set do\vn the story in the 
teacher's own language: 

This is a one-teacher school located in the open country. 
The principal's home is close by the school, and his home and 
wife have been of much assistance in developing its social 
and community service. 

Following the lead of several progressive educational institu- 
tions, the school set about to remedy its shortcomings. The 
principal interested privately the school board in the study of 
agriculture as applicable to the little school, and soon every one 
had become interested, the idea seeming to be contagious. We 

secured from the creamery at M a large Babcock milk-and- 

cream tester, and soon the boys and girls of most families weighed 
the milk every day twice and had each cow tested at least 

^Atlantic Educational Journal. 
15 209 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

once a month. This alone has led to the building of two silos, 
the only ones for several miles around here, the weeding out of 
poor cows from several herds, and a better standard of and 
interest in dairying as an essential branch of agriculture. We 
won the first, the second, and the third prizes awarded by the 
Minnesota State Dairyman's Association, and this in competition 
with any boy or girl in the whole state. 

At different times I visit the pupils to see how their cows and 
records are getting along. Sometimes a member of the faculty 
of the County Agricultural School comes to see them in their 
homes. Their gardens are inspected in the same way in the 
spring and at other times. Several of these are in the state one- 
acre corn contest. 

', These activities led our patrons to look upon the school more 
as a social center. Whenever there was something to be done 
there was little trouble to secure some patron to do it. The 
children carried home with them the spirit of improvement and 
change of things generally for the better. The parents caught 
the spirit. Good seed was sown, even in the hearts of the 
fathers and mothers. 

About once a month an entertainment was given by the school. 
There were basket socials, necktie socials, pound socials, etc. 
The schoolhouse was nearly always filled to its capacity. We 
raised considerable sums of money in this manner. Often we 
would have some noted speaker or some instructor from the 
agricultural school address us, giving valuable helps and hints 
on agriculture and home affairs. While the people were enjoying 
themselves they were also profiting greatly by this pleasant 
experience. 

Soon we started debating on live and suitable topics. This 
can easily become a most powerful agency in community school- 
work. Pleasure and profit are properly and happily united in it. 
Some things were learned in these debates which would not 
have been learned by other means. 

On Saturdays we used the building for sewing lessons. At 
other times the girls would come to my house, where my wife 
gave them instruction in sewing. They seemed to enjoy the 
social part of these meetings very much, as well as the instruc- 
tion. 

2IO 



THE TEACHER THE CITIZEN-MAKER 

Once every month the older boys and girls met as the ^' School 
Progress Club.'' They learned parliamentary rules and prac- 
tices. At these meetings some members read papers of their 
own production on subjects selected by the president. Some 
of our work was illustrated by pictures in one of the agricultural 
papers, and the effect was "great" on the boys and girls. 

Music, singing, comedies, debates, discussions, other musical 
entertainments, etc., formed a large part of social gatherings for 
the people. 

Even those somewhat indifferent at first soon became thor- 
oughly a part of our merry-making and social activities. Every 
one felt helped, and they expressed this sentiment oftentimes to 
me personally. This alone is a large part of a teacher's compen- 
sation.^ 

A teacher looking about for a place that would try her 
mettle landed in a mountain country. She found a 
wretched little hovel for a schoolhouse, and on the day of 
opening she was confronted by about one himdred chil- 
dren. Nothing daunted, she went to work. She went 
after the trustees and superintendent, and, finding that 
their intentions were good but their performance a little 
slow, she got in touch with the state superintendent. 
He made a week's campaign in the county, carrying the 
county superintendent and some of the trustees with him, 
and at the end of the week he had them pledged to erect 
a modern schoolhouse of three rooms and a workroom to 
take the place of the hovel. In the meanwhile the teacher 
on visiting the homes of the community saw that these 
were run on a basis of drudgery. She determined to 
introduce sewing and cooking in the school if possible. 
She began by organizing the larger girls into a sewing class, 
and f oimd that not one in five of them knew the use of a 
thimble. In a few weeks the girls had become so en- 
thusiastic that the boys complained that they wanted to 
do something, and, as the teacher did not at the time 

^Atlantic Educational Journal, 

2IZ 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

have any carpenter's tools for them, they insisted on being 
allowed to join the sewing class. The mothers soon 
became interested, and are being taught to sew by the 
teacher and girls who are learning. The new building 
has been completed, and the workroom is equipped for 
sewing and cooking for the girls and manual work for the 
boys. Garden work for the boys and girls will be intro- 
duced during the vacation, and this teacher is determined 
to work the year round. She is interested in the trans- 
formation of that community through the school. It is 
through such teachers that the transformation must come. 
Another teacher in the same county relates this incident : 

It is hard to get a teacher to come to this county because 
the living conditions are not good everywhere. It is still harder 
to get them to stay, for the same reason. One day last fall 
I went with a new teacher to a neighborhood where they had 
not had a school for some time. I wished to put heart into her, 
because I felt that the schoolhouse and the surroundings 
would depress her. When we arrived in the community she 
saw the place where she would have to stay, and then she looked 
at the schoolhouse. Both almost indescribable! As soon as 
we arrived a manly little fellow about twelve years old came out 
and took our horse and fed him. Knowing me, he asked, "Is 
that the new teacher, and will she stay?" The question was 
pathetic, because several teachers had come and looked and 
gone away. After dinner the new teacher told me she could 
not stand it and that she would not remain. I asked the little 
boy to hitch up the horse, and with an eager look in his face 
he again asked me, "Will the new teacher stay?" When I told 
him that she would not, a look came into his eyes that haunts 
me yet. 

"Ah, yes," said a rural-school superintendent to whom 
we were relating this story one day, "but the conditions 
you describe are very exceptional. There are not many 
communities in America that have such difficulty in 
securing and holding teachers." 

213 



THE TEACHER THE CITIZEN-MAKER 

Possibly there are not a great niimber where the con- 
ditions make such heavy demands upon the courage and 
consecration of the teacher ; but do not the facts pubHshed 
by the United States Bureau of Education sufficiently 
show that what our rural districts everywhere most 
need is the teacher who will "stay"? Such instances of 
courage and consecration as these we have cited have 
occurred and are occurring in every state of the Union; 
but they are unfortunately occurring only in spots. 
Why should they not occur everywhere? Why should 
they not be made the riile instead of the exception? Is 
it not obvious that because they are the exceptions they 
have made an extraordinary and even cruel demand upon 
those qualities which should be encouraged and not 
discouraged in every teacher? If such results can be 
obtained with little or no encouragement from the state 
or local communities, what results might not be obtained 
with adequate encouragement and support? Why should 
the task be made so difficult that only the exceptional 
teacher is able to surmount the obstacles and work out a 
successful program in harmony with the normal activities 
of the children and the normal needs of the communities? 

It may be true that many teachers who have not done 
so might have shown more initiative and courage and con- 
secration than they have shown, but a criticism of this 
nature begs the question. These instances have been men- 
tioned to show that, after all is said, it is not the one-room 
school, but the one-room teacher, that fails to improve the 
community; and that the teacher with many rooms in her 
mind and many windows to her soul will transform the 
one-room school and the one-room commimity. They 
have been mentioned in order to show the reaUy heroic 
qualities of a very large number of our country teachers. 
They have been mentioned as an encouragement to 
teachers because they show that adequate btiildings and 
adequate salaries almost invariably follow the exhibition of 

213 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

these qualities; but, inasmuch as such instances have oc- 
curred in every state in the Union, it is incumbent upon 
the states and local communities to take the necessary 
steps to erect adequate school-plants and to pay adequate 
salaries to real citizen-makers, and then to demand that 
the product be forthcoming. To make every rural teacher 
in every rural commimity prove what has already been 
amply proved in other communities is not only unreason- 
able, but puts the states and the communities in the atti- 
tude of neglecting their own children; and, indeed, where 
discouragements and opposition are placed in the way of 
the teachers, the states and the communities assume the 
attitude of ''stoning the prophets" who come with the 
desire to turn the raw material of childhood into citizen- 
ship for the benefit of the state and the community. 

It is probable that no one factor has done so much to 
break down the barriers between a bookish program and 
e very-day life as our normal schools. They have been of 
incalculable service in freeing our citizen-makers from 
a musty medievalism. Their graduates are in great 
demand, and this demand is increasing more rapidly than 
the supply. 

The normal schools have done much in child study; 
they need now to do much in community study — to lead 
their students to make community surveys, and to show 
them how to base the course of study upon the activities 
of the community. They have taught how to correlate 
one study with another, they need now to teach their 
students how to derive the materials of education out of 
the every-day activities of the children as normal members 
of the community. 

Many of our normal schools are, as a matter of fact, 
reshaping their training courses to meet the modem con- 
ception of the teacher as the citizen-maker. The state 
normal schools of Michigan, for example, are required 
by legislative enactment to give special courses for 

214 



THE TEACHER THE CITIZEN-MAKER 

students preparing to teach in the rural schools. At the 
Western Normal School at Kalamazoo the course for 
rural-school teachers covers four years. Besides twelve 
weeks of required work in psychology, methods, and 
management, there are thirty-six weeks of required work 
in nature and agriculture, twenty-four weeks of elective 
work in domestic arts and science, and a course in rural 
sociology. A one-room rural school near by provides op- 
portunities for practical experimentation. 

At the Kirksville (Missouri) State Normal School special 
courses offered for rural-school teachers include sanitation, 
nature study and agriculture, rural-life problems, rural- 
school organization and management, industrial arts, and 
observation in rural-school work. 

At the State Normal School at North Adams, Massa- 
chusetts, students preparing for rural work may elect two 
years in agriculture and extra work in domestic science. 
Besides professional courses in education and methods, 
courses are required in music, drawing, child study, nature 
study, cooking, sewing, sanitation, and social economics. 

The State Normal School at Athens, Georgia, besides giv- 
ing the professional courses in psychology, methods, etc., 
gives instruction in school-gardening, agriculture, outdoor 
plays and games, manual training, domestic science, rural 
sociology, and rural economics. Training in community 
surveys is given through the Georgia Club, a volunteer 
organization in which the members are studying the 
problems of agriculture, population, taxation, farm owner- 
ship, farm tenancy, schools, chiirches, cooperative enter- 
prises, etc., with reference to the development of Georgia. 
Not only students at the State Normal School, but teachers 
in the field, are working on these surveys, which are being 
made by counties. These studies are changing the attitude 
of the teachers and of the normal students toward their 
work; they are giving them a knowledge of actual condi- 
tions and both the power and the purpose to reorganize 

215 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

and transform actual conditions through the schools. 
There could be no better way to begin to link up the 
school with the life of its community, to break down and 
eliminate the barrier of isolation now almost universal 
between the school and the teacher on the one side and 
the community on the other, and to prevent the building 
of a barrier between the children at school and their 
experiences and interests at home. There could be no 
better way to encourage the teacher to stay in the com- 
munity and to be a citizen-maker and a community- 
builder. There could be no better way to make the 
teacher sympathetic toward country life and toward the 
school-work as a factor in that life. The Wisconsin re- 
port already alluded to, in speaking of the attitude of 
teachers toward country life, says that of one hundred and 
thirty-one rural teachers visited, eighty-five took no part 
whatever in the community life — that is, did not live mth 
the community, although they did live in it. This is a 
picture of conditions everywhere. Here, then, is an 
opportunity that might well be grasped not only by 
normal schools, but by agricultural colleges and, indeed, 
by every educational institution that is interested in vital 
citizenship. 

The Harrisonburg (Virginia) State Normal School in- 
cludes in its four-year regular normal course subjects for 
special preparation in rural work. In addition a two-year 
course is offered, which includes training in rural sociology, 
home economics, sewing, cooking, gardening, agriculture. 
Observation and practice work is done in a number of 
country schools. President Julian A. Burruss, of this 
school at Harrisonburg, has admirably expressed the 
point of view that is inspiring the leaders in normal train- 
ing everywhere: 

The most potent influence in modern educational thought 
[he says] is the awakening of educators and the public generally 

216 



THE TEACHER THE CITIZEN-MAKER 

to the necessity of bringing the school into closer touch with the 
life of the people, their work, and their interests. It is properly 
expected of our schools supported by public funds that they 
train for good citizenship, and it is generally recognized that 
this implies productive efficiency on the part of the individual 
so that he may be a self-supporting and contributing unit in the 
social whole. In fulfilment of this expectation the public-school 
education of the future must be brought close to the lives of the 
people, it must result in industry and thrift, it must make 
homes more sanitary and attractive, it must pave the way to 
productive work with skilled hands, clear minds, and pure 
hearts. In our cities our boys and girls must be put into pos- 
session of the elements of handicraft, and in our rural districts 
they must be given the elements of agriculture and kindred 
subjects. 

To meet the demands of the new education it is obvious that 
the work of the Normal School can no longer be confined to 
theory and books, but must seek its material in real things, in 
nature, in the practical activities of industry and commerce, in 
the business, civic, and social interests of Hfe. Without neglect- 
ing the Hmitless stores of useful knowledge bound up in printed 
volumes, it must also draw from the outside world — ^the home, 
the farm, the workshop, the office, and the marts of trade. 

The complete normal school must be equipped to train 
teachers in agriculture and other rural arts, in cooking and 
sewing and other household arts, and in drawing and other 
manual arts. 

As the factory has taken out of the home many of the 
materials of education, it becomes the more necessary to 
train the children through the schools in the knowledge 
of those things which bring them into every-day contact 
with the factory. The citizen-maker, then, must know, 
and must know how to teach, food values in order that 
the future citizens may know these values and may be 
able to detect and prevent the subtle sabotage of adulter- 
ated foods and of poisonous ingredients and extracts. 
The citizen-maker must know fabric values — the difference 
between the shoddy and the genuine — in order that the 

217 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

future citizens may know these values and be able to 
detect and to black-list the products of greed and fraud. 
These values were once known in the home; the factory 
has taken just so much of this knowledge from the home 
as was of educational value, and is offering products the 
real values of which those in the home who should know 
do not and cannot know unless in and through the schools 
they learn them. The citizen-maker must be able to use 
and teach the use of all labor-saving devices in the home, 
that the future citizens may be educated in the use of 
them before they become "fixed types," unable to es- 
cape the habit of using the tools and methods of drudgery. 

To those who cry out that these things have not true 
cultural value — that we must teach our children to look 
up at the sun and the stars, and not down to the earth — 
the answer is that, fortunately or unfortunately, the feet 
and the stomach must remain on the earth, and the 
attempt of centuries to subject them to the star-gazing 
process has invariably led to disaster. The girl who ac- 
quires at school the desire to look up at the sun and the 
stars only and who spends the rest of her life awkwardly 
drudging is certainly not better off than the girl who, 
while learning at school the inspiration of looking up, 
also learns those things which enable her to do her daily 
work quickly, easily, efficiently, so that she may have an 
abundance of time to look up. The home-making and 
the home-keeping of the future must include a knowledge 
of food values, of fabric values, of labor-saving devices, 
of sanitation, of sex hygiene, of the laws of health. The 
home is in a stage of transition. The modern home must 
be organized on a basis of social efficiency, and not re- 
stored to a basis of sentimental drudgery. 

Besides reshaping their training-courses so as to pre- 
pare their regular students for rural-school work, many of 
the normal schools are providing special summer courses 
for rural-school teachers, and in this a very considerable 

2i8 



THE TREACHER THE CITIZEN-MAKER 

number of colleges and universities are following their 
lead. The United States Commissioner of Education 
has published a list of eighty-three state normal schools 
and more than four hundred colleges and universities that 
now offer courses of from three to twelve weeks for the 
special benefit of rural-school workers. And the move- 
ment has gone even further than this. A number of states 
have established special county training-schools and have 
organized training classes in connection with rural high 
schools. In 191 2 Wisconsin had twenty-seven county 
schools and classes in connection with six high schools 
for special training in rural work. New York, Michigan, 
Minnesota conduct training classes for rural teachers in 
connection with high schools; and Arkansas, Iowa, Kan- 
sas, Maine, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oregon, Vermont, 
and Virginia conduct such classes either in connection with 
public high schools or private academies. In 19 12 New 
York graduated 1,156 students from ninety of these special 
classes. Nebraska in the same year had extended this 
work to one hundred and ten high schools, and Kansas to 
one hundred and sixty. In April, 19 13, Iowa passed a 
law requiring that after July, 191 5, all teachers must have 
had at least six months' experience or twelve or more weeks 
of normal training. This list makes no pretense to com- 
pleteness; it is introduced simply to show how the wind is 
blowing. 

But in spite of all this encouraging progress it must 
still be evident to the close student of rural-school condi- 
tions that the facilities for the special training of rural- 
school teachers remain far from adequate both in number 
and in the quality of their instruction. 

There are still, unfortunately, normal schools and 
college - training classes that send their graduates out 
to teach before giving them a thorough understanding of 
the basic rural-life problems, before giving them a mastery 
of the methods by which to familiarize themselves with 

219 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

the peculiar conditions of the particular communities 
to which they are called, and before imbuing them with 
the spirit of consecrated service that will make them 
*'stay" on the job until the job is at least in the way of 
being done. Such institutions not only waste the money 
of the state, but inflict an unpardonable wrong upon the 
community to which the ** graduate" flits for a short in- 
terval, heedless of the great responsibility and equally 
great privilege that has been awarded her. No institution 
can meet the demands of our generation if its aim is merely 
scholasticism. It is only when the normal or training 
school is fired by ideals that are not only high, but sanely 
directed, that it is in a position to lead to effective results. 
For it is too often forgotten that ideals may be both high 
and misleading. 

For example, the ideals of a certain state normal school 
were very high, but when several teachers who had at- 
tended the school stood an examination on geography 
under a county superintendent their ideals seemed unable 
to function properly when an attempt was made to give 
them a practical application. All of these teachers lived 
amid the eroded and gullied lands from which, on account 
of bad farming, the soil was carried by tons into the 
branches and creeks and small rivers, and thence into a 
larger stream that was noted for its muddiness. The ques- 
tion was asked: "Why is the — River muddy all the 

time, and what relation has its muddiness to the farming in 
this section ? How could the farmers lessen the muddiness, 
and how would this affect the land and the crops?" 

Beyond the bare statement that the muddiness was 
caused by the rains, not one answered the question. 
Had the conventional geography question been asked, 
"What is erosion?" there would probably have been 
perfect answers from each teacher. 

One could easily imagine that one of these normal- 
trained teachers, with the very highest of ideals, had 

220 



THE TEACHER THE CITIZEN-MAKER 

wandered from her home in search of a better salary and 
had finally traveled across several states and began to 
teach in a rural district in Wisconsin, and that it was she 
concerning whom The Report on Conditions and Needs of 
Rural Schools in Wisconsin gives the following account : 

Coming into one school, the investigator found a class of 
two boys and one girl reciting in geography. The children 
ranged in age from twelve to fifteen years. The oldest, a boy, 
was asked to name the exports and imports of England. He was 
unable to give any answer, and, although the teacher struggled 
with him and with the other children, she failed to get the 
replies she sought. She explained that they were embarrassed 
because a visitor was present. 

The investigator asked if he might ask them a few questions, 
and the teacher consented. Turning to the boy first called on 
by the teacher, he asked him what the exports of his father's 
farm were. The boy still hesitated, but replied with the ques- 
tion, "Do you mean what we raise?" Encouraged by a partial 
assent, he went on and became quite enthusiastic in telling 
about the various crops grown. Another question brought out 
what was retained on the farm and what was sold. Asked as 
to imports, he again hesitated, not knowing the meaning of the 
word ' ' imports . ' ' When asked what was needed on the farm that 
they could not raise, he again started off and gave a very clear 
statement, suggesting farm machinery, groceries, harnesses, and 
also spoke of buying seed-potatoes and seed-corn. This opened 
up a new field. Before leaving the subject the visitor asked 
the children to compare " export " and " import," asking them to 
give the meaning of the words. Without hesitation one of the 
boys said, "Exports mean what you take off the farms; imports, 
what you bring in." 

During the lesson the rest of the school were interested, and 
when at last the original question was brought up, the pupils 
were eager to recite, and did so intelligently. 

The content of normal-training courses should be two- 
fold: Instruction in right methods of securing vital ma- 
terials for study, and instruction in vital methods of 

221; 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

presentation. Just as the children should be directed to 
concentrate their activities upon the materials of com- 
munity life, so the prospective teacher should be directed. 
The methods of making accurate commimity surveys and 
of winnowing the materials of study from these surveys; 
the methods of guiding the children in similar surveys; 
the methods of evolving the materials of instruction in 
reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic, drawing, geography, 
botany, biology, language, geometry, out of the children's 
normal activities; the methods of making hygiene and 
sanitation and civil government every-day affairs of 
every-day life instead of unrelated subjects of academic 
gymnastics — ^these, with the high and definite purpose 
of making efficient citizens, are the things that will put life 
into the normal schools and into every institution that 
would train the citizen-maker for effective service through 
the school. The training-school will thus become the 
place not only for the preparation of the teacher in ac- 
cepted practices, but for constant experimentation. 
It will anticipate needs by searching out sound ten- 
dencies. It will base its theories upon actual conditions, 
and will apply them to the problems of every-day life for 
the improvement of that life. It will follow its students 
into their communities and teach them and inspire them 
in the handling of their particular problems, as the demon- 
stration agent follows the boys and girls to the actual home 
and farm. 

In fact, it is in the direction of such demonstration work 
that much of the most hopeful progress in the effective 
training of rural-school teachers is being made. If all 
the normal schools and other institutions for the training 
of our citizen-makers should adopt the best of methods and 
should succeed in securing the best of normal teachers 
they would yet be unable to reach more than a fraction 
of the men and women who are actually at work in the 
rural schools, just as our agricultural schools and col- 

222 



THE TEACHER THE CITIZEN-MAKER 

leges, with all their farmers' institutes and movable schools 
and demonstration trains and circulars and bulletins, are 
imable to reach more than a fraction of the men and women 
who are actually at work on the farms. It is a recogni- 
tion of this fact that is leading normal schools and similar 
institutions to cooperate with state departments of public 
instruction in the development of a system of supervision, 
through state supervisors and supervising teachers, that 
promises to do as much for the improvement of rural- 
school teaching as the Farmers' Cooperative Demonstra- 
tion Work has done for the improvement of methods of 
agricultural production. 



XII 

FIRST AID TO THE CITIZEN-MAKER 

IF all the teachers in our rural schools were competent 
citizen-makers; if they were men and women not 
only with energy and foresight, but also with the proper 
training and the vision of the country community as it 
might be; if they were all backed by school boards 
anxious and able to make their work effective, then it 
might be excusable to drop them down into their respec- 
tive schools to do their work with only such help as the 
county and state superintendents can give them, supple- 
mented by teachers' institutes, summer normal courses, 
and the various forms of extension work which the states 
offer. But, however well the modem normal schools may 
fit the teachers of the future for rural work, few of the 
teachers actually in service have had any normal-school 
training or, indeed, any professional training at all. 

A study made by the State Superintendent of Public 
Instruction of Kansas in 19 lo shows that: 

Of the total number of rural elementary teachers in both one 
and two-room schools less than 5 per cent, were college or normal 
graduates; 31 per cent, were high-school graduates; 4 per cent, 
had a partial college or normal course; 24 per cent, had a partial 
high-school course; and 36 per cent, had no high-school educa- 
tion. The number of inexperienced teachers was 24 per cent, 
of the whole. 

According to reports made to the United States Bureau 
of Education, of the 15,042 rural elementary teachers in 

224 



FIRST AID 

New York State in the "school commissioners' districts," 
139 were, in 191 1, college graduates; 3,272 had normal 
diplomas; and 6,018 were graduates of teacher-training 
classes in public high schools. Five thousand five hundred 
and sixty, or considerably more than a third of the total, 
had no professional training. 

In Texas, 10,564 of the 13,116 country-school teachers 
in 19 10 had never attended college, normal school, or high 
school, according to the report of the State Department of 
Education. The state superintendent reports, further- 
more, *'that 2,965 of them held the first-grade certificate, 
which is * not at all equal to the requirements for gradua- 
tion from a reputable public high school of this state'; 
that 8,740 held second-grade certificates, to obtain which 
they must have the equivalent of the education of the 
seventh grade in the public schools of the state; and that 
530 held third-grade certificates, to obtain which they 
must have completed the work of the fifth grade of the 
public schools or its equivalent. Four-fifths of these 
teachers are white." 

The State Supervisor of Rural Elementary Schools in 
South Carolina has recently published the restdts of a 
study made by him covering twenty-six of the forty-three 
counties of the state. Complete data could not be 
obtained from the other counties. 

In the twenty-six counties [he says] there were employed in 
rural schools for white children 301 graduates of 17 South 
Carolina colleges, 71 graduates of the state normal college, and 
29 graduates of colleges in other states. The total number of 
rural teachers in these counties was 2,023. Most of the college 
and normal graduates were in union and consolidated schools, 
and practically none were in one-teacher buildings. 

The report of the Better Iowa Schools Commission of 
19 1 2 says: 

16 225 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

There are in round numbers 12,500 rural schools in Iowa. 
Almost 40 per cent, of the teaching force have had less than 
one year's experience. The average tenure of service is about 
three years. There are comparatively few normal - trained 
teachers. Last year 60 per cent, of the Iowa teachers who 
were certificated were inexperienced. 

And this year thousands more of inexperienced young 
men and women in every state in the Union are leaving 
grade schools, high schools, and colleges, and are being 
installed in the rural schools because they are able to pass 
the examinations. In the very nature of things they can- 
not possibly know the business of conducting a country 
school — if they are to become efficient citizen-makers they 
must be taught while they teach. 

Now, fortunately, most of these teachers are willing, and 
even eager, to learn. But to expect them to adopt a social 
outlook and to evolve a course of study outside of the 
text-books without help is to expect the impossible. 
What, actually, do they face when they enter the school- 
room for the first time? A variety of "subjects," re- 
quired by law, and usually required to be taught from a 
prescribed text-book ! These * ' subjects ' * are so numerous 
that in extent they are sufficient to produce anything 
from leadership to lunacy. For example, the courses 
of study include reading, writing, arithmetic, spelling, 
language, geography, history, civics, grammar, physiology 
and hygiene, music, drawing, cooking, sewing, woodwork, 
gardening, agriculture, geometry, algebra, physics, chem- 
istry, botany, English and American literature, Latin, 
French, German, and Spanish. There are probably no 
rural schools that attempt this entire menu ; but some of 
them approximate it. 

This duck-and-goose method of stuffing the children 
with materials scooped out of a text-book will never 
justify the faithful labor of the teachers, trained or 
untrained; will never justify the faith of the children; 

226 



FIRST AID 

will never justify the financial outlay of the taxpayers. 
And yet the great majority of untrained and inexperi- 
enced teachers are as little capable of freeing themselves 
from it unaided as the average farmer is capable of freeing 
himself from outworn and inefficient agricultural methods 
without the aid of a demonstration agent. So long as 
teachers are unable to attend the normal schools it is 
essential to the development of efficiency in the rural 
schools that the normal schools or their equivalent should 
go to them. Demonstration methods must be used with 
them as with those who have received the traditional 
training in agriculture. They need not merely to he told, 
hut to he shown, how to base the course of study upon 
the activities of the community; how to derive the 
materials of education out of the every- day activities 
of the children as normal members of the commu- 
nity. 

Who is going to be the actual demonstration agent for 
the country teachers? Hitherto we have relied princi- 
pally upon the county superintendent, not only to ad- 
minister the business affairs of the school system under 
his jurisdiction, but also to supervise the work of the 
teachers — to give them the outlook and the training 
which only the few have been able to secure from the 
normal schools. It has become increasingly evident that 
the county unit is so large that not even the most com- 
petent superintendent can attend to both the adminis- 
trative and the supervisory work. 

To carry inspiration and technical training to the 
teachers who cannot go to the training-schools several 
states have made statutory provision for closer supervision 
than the unaided county or township superintendent can 
possibly give. In different states these new officials go 
by different titles — supervisors, inspectors, supervising 
teachers — but imder whichever name, their work is to 
carry first aid to the rural teacher while she is on the job 

227 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

of citizen-making. One of these supervising teachers 
says in her first report : 

There can be no cut-and-dried plans for this work, since the 
conditions in each school are so largely controlled by the environ- 
ment of the particular school. We have selected five schools 
which we are trying to raise to the highest degree of efficiency 
in order that they may serve as demonstration schools for 
our normal school. This seems to us to be one of the quickest 
and most effective means of bringing a normal school into 
touch with the existing conditions in the rural schools. 

The schools have been made more attractive for the children 
by using cleanliness and comfort as the foundation on which 
to build "beauty in the schoolroom." 

Such decorations as appropriate pictures, flowers, blackboard 
decorations, and an exhibition of the children's work have been 
used most effectively. Care has been taken that the pictures 
should be well chosen and that they should mean something. 
These cost no more than the meaningless and occasionally vulgar 
pictures that are found on the walls of some schoolrooms. A 
few large pictures are better than many small ones. If the 
latter are used they should be arranged in effective groups. 
The following is a suggestive list : "The Horse Fair," by Bonheur ; 
"The Gleaners," by Millet; "The Angelus," by Millet; "Pil- 
grims Going to Church," by Boughton; "Christmas Chimes," 
byBlashfield; "Madonna of the Chair," by Raphael; "Spring," 
by Caret; "Aurora," by Guide Reni; "Can't You Talk," by 
Holmes; "Feeding Her Birds," by Millet. These can be ob- 
tained at a nominal cost. 

Children's work should be used for decorative purposes on 
special occasions and then put away. 

Once a month the teachers of these demonstration schools 
assemble to discuss their different problems with the supervisor. 
In addition to these problems some definite work is as- 
signed. 

To awaken the interest of the children clubs have been or- 
ganized in some of the schools. The children have been very 
responsive to this work, and many improvements have been 
inade y^hich otherwise would not have been made. Besides 

223 



FIRST AID 

keeping the schoolroom and yard clean the boys have hauled 
and crushed rock enough to make walks in the school-yard. 

The school-garden is one of the very best means of connect- 
ing the rural school with the rural life. Realizing this, we are 
making preparations now for a garden at a one-room school. 
The teacher, with the assistance of her senior class, will operate 
this garden and thus prove to the average rural-school teacher 
that it can be done successfully. 

Sewing and manual training are working successfully in four 
schools, and cooking in one. 

While the girls are sewing and cooking, the boys have manual 
training. In the manual training as much of the native material 
is used as possible. After making their own looms the boys 
have woven rag rugs. Now they are making shuck mats. 

In a three-room school the little people are furnishing a doll- 
house, thus bringing in paper-cutting, designing, weaving, and 
cardboard work. 

Other phases of the school-work are not being neglected for 
this practical work. 

The supervisor tries to arrange to do some teaching in the 
other subjects every time she visits the schools. Then she 
plans and makes suggestions to the teachers. Her work takes 
into consideration all the things which pertain to the physical 
and social environment of the rural community. 

The following is a list of articles suggestive of what 
might be considered an average equipment for a cooking 
laboratory for a one-room rural school : 

COOKING EQUIPMENT 

I one-burner blue-flame oil-stove with oven . . $6 . 50 

I kettle 50 

I coffee-pot 20 

1 bread-board 20 

2 dish-pans 40 

I wire sieve 10 

1 frying-pan 20 

2 egg-beaters 10 

I dust-pan 10 

229 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

1 baking-dish $.20 

2 measuring-cups 10 

2 white bowls 20 

2 kitchen spoons . .10 

I scrubbing-brush 10 

1 towel-roller 20 

2 dry-goods boxes for cupboards 10 

I quart cup 05 

1 stew-pan 10 

2 cake-pans 20 

I teapot 10 

1 soap-shaker 05 

2 strainers 10 

2 muffin-tins 10 

2 frying-pans 10 

I cake-tin 10 

SERVING OUTFIT 

6 cups and saucers 50 

6 plates 50 

I flat dish 15 

6 teaspoons .- 25 

6 tablespoons 25 

6 knives and forks 50 

3 dessert-plates 30 

I cream-pitcher .10 

1 sugar-bowl 10 

Table-cloth and 6 napkins (made by the 

children) 50 

4 glasses 20 

2 salt-shakers .10 

I waiter 05 

Total $13.70 

COURSE OF STUDY 

COOKING 

The first lesson Is given to a study of the cooking equipment, 

230 



FIRST AID 

including the use and care of the stove, also the washing of 
dishes, etc. 

Fruit 

1. Kinds. 

2. Composition. 

3. Food value. 

4. Methods of cooking. 

5. Stewed, baked, and scalloped apples. 

Vegetables 

1. Kinds. 

2. Composition. 

3. Food value. 

4. Methods of cooking — salads and onions. 

Potatoes 

1. Kinds. 

2. Composition. 

3. Food value. 

4. Preparation — ^boiled and baked potatoes. 

Cereals 
I. Kinds. 
i. Composition. 

3. Food value. 

4. Methods of cooking oatmeal, commeal mush, and rice. 

Sugar 

1. Composition 

2. Food value. 

3. Cooking candies — ^fudge and peanut-brittle. 

Milk 

1. Analysis by experiments. 

2. Composition. 

3. Food value. 

4. Products of milk. 

5. Making junket pudding. 

231 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

Cream Soups 
Tomato, potato, and celery. 

Eggs 

1. Composition. 

2. Food value. 

3. Testing eggs. 

4. Methods of cooking illustrated — ^soft and hard boiled, 

poached, scrambled, and stuffed. 

Combination of Milk and Eggs 
Baked and boiled custard. 

Flour 

1. Kinds. 

2. Composition. 

3. Food value. 

4. Study of batters — ^pancakes and mufSns. 

5. Making biscuits, yeast bread. 

6. Use of left-over bread (bread pudding). 

7. Cake — kinds, preparation of pans, etc. 

8. Make loaf and layer cake. 

9. Pastry — apple and lemon pies and cheese straws. 

Meats 

1. Kinds. 

2. Composition. 

3. Food value. 

4. Uses of parts. 

5. Preparation of meat — stock soup, broiled steak, left-over 

meat (pie), and different ways of cooking pork. 

Salads 

1. Kinds. 

2. Food value. 

3. General directions for making salads. 

4. Make potato salad with dressing. 

232 



FIRST AID 

Preserves 

1. Kinds. 

2. Food value. 

3. Composition. 

4. Methods of cooking — ^peach and pear preserves. 

Canning — Fruits and Vegetables 

Pickles — cucumbers and pears. 

Beverages 

1. Kinds. 

2. Food value of each. 

3. Preparation of cocoa, tea, and coffee. 

Lesson in serving a meal. 

Note. — ^This course of study has been used in a one-room 
cooking-school with the above equipment. 

SEWING 

1. Work-bags — illustrating the basting, running, and hem- 
ming stitches. 

2. Cooking aprons and caps. 

3. Stove-lifters. 

4. Table-cloth and napkins — illustrating the overhand stitch. 

5. A simple sewing-apron. 

6. Underwaists — learning how to make buttonholes. 

7. Underskirts — application of different stitches learned. 

8. Tailor-made shirtwaists. 

9. Kimonos — long and short. 

10. Hemstitching handkerchiefs. 

11. Fancy stitches — applied on bureau-scarf. 

12. Embroidery — centerpieces. 

13. Stenciling — sofa-cushions, bureau-scarfs, and curtains. 

Note. — ^AU of this work has actually been done in one, two, 
and three room schools of this county. In order to make sewing 
popular the course of study must be tentative. The children 
are often given their preference as to what problem they shall 
undertake. 

233 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

Some one said of a farm-demonstration agent that he 
made the biggest track of any man in the state, since big 
crops of corn and grass sprang up in every field over which 
he walked. In the tracks of most of the supervising 
teachers and inspectors spring up large crops of improved 
school conditions. What do they accomplish? They do 
the next thing, no matter how seemingly insignificant. 
Here is the report of one state supervisor on a visit he made 
to a country-school district with the county superin- 
tendent : 

In company with Superintendent B 1 recently spent an en- 
tire week visiting the schools of District, County. 

It was no pleasure trip ; nor was it taken simply for the purpose 
of dropping into a school, complimenting the teacher and pupils, 
and passing on to the next place. 

Our general plan was to visit each school, ascertain its physical 
needs, test the pupils, confer with the patrons, and close the week 
with a meeting of teachers and trustees for the purpose of de- 
ciding upon certain definite things for the improvement of school 
conditions. 

This district is country "sure enough," as they say. There 
is one small town in the district. It is a poor agricultural sec- 
tion, the homes are small and far removed from the public roads, 
the people are just good, plain farmers. There are the usual 
number of churches and a few illicit stills. At intervals of about 
three miles we found six one-room and three two-room school- 
buildings. 

The school levies in this district are at the maximum. Two 
of the trustees are engaged in commercial pursuits, the third is a 
farmer; all are good, capable citizens, devoting as much time to 
the school as they can spare from their private affairs. 

School No. I, — One-room school; about thirty-five pupils. 
Teacher graduate of a good high school; her second year in the 
work, but first at this school. We tested the highest class 
(average age about twelve years) on arithmetic and spelling. 
In arithmetic the test was a simple example in long division, 
such as 846,750 divided by 34. Out of twelve pupils five 
obtained the correct answers. In speUing, the results were 

234 



FIRST AID 

very good, there being four perfect papers and only twelve 
mistakes. There were seven patrons out at this school, and they 
listened very attentively to our talks. This school has raised 
the necessary funds to obtain a library. 

School No. 2. — Two-room school; about fifty pupils. Tested 
pupils in writing; results fair. Pupils backward in arithmetic. 
Fine entertainment here by pupils, who gave evidence of being 
carefully trained. Pretty blackboard calendar. Room was 
ventilated by means of windows. Seventeen patrons at the 
meeting, about one-third of whom were mothers with small 
children. After talks one of the patrons promised to act as a 
committee to get covered water-coolers. The teachers and 
three mothers were appointed a committee to raise funds for a 
library. Some of the older pupils were designated to see that 
pictures were obtained for schoolroom decoration. A school 
league was organized. 

School No. 5. — One -room school; about twenty pupils. 
Teacher attended summer normal. Some pictures and pretty 
maps on the wall. Teacher tests pupils each month. 

School No. y. — One -room school; about twenty pupils. 
Teacher graduate of high school with normal-training depart- 
ment. Some pretty pictures on walls; attention paid to ven- 
tilation. Twelve patrons were out at this school. Money has 
been raised for a library. 

School No. Q. — One-room school; about twenty pupils; new 
teacher. The superintendent tells me that this has been a 
troublesome school, with annual change of teachers. Pupils 
backward in arithmetic, geography, grammar, and several other 
things. The same story in all the schools. Great problem with 
the teacher was to reduce the number of classes. I tried to 
figure it out for her on the following basis : Five classes in reading, 
total recitation-time one hundred minutes; five classes in arith- 
metic, total recitation-time seventy-five minutes; spelling, 
geography, history, and grammar classes — thirty minutes to 
each subject. Teacher said she would try to work it out and 
let me know results. 

On Saturday we held a meeting of all the teachers and trustees 
just to talk matters over. All teachers were present except four 
who could procure no conveyances; one trustee was absent 

235 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

through failure to receive notice. We met in the home of Mrs. 

W , one of the teachers, who resides near the center of the 

district. 

Each teacher made a report for her school, setting forth her 
difficulties and the needs of the school from the physical side. 

During the following summer every school in the district was 
painted and equipped with patent desks and good stoves. 

The trustees ordered floor-oil for all of the schools, and re- 
quested the teachers to hold entertainments to raise funds for 
the following things, in the order mentioned: Covered water- 
coolers, window-shades, libraries, and pictures. 

Pupils' monthly report-blanks were also ordered by the 
trustees, and the teachers were requested to do more drill work 
and give out monthly reports to the pupils. 

The teachers subscribed to a school paper and made definite 
arrangements to circulate among themselves two copies of a 
book dealing with some of the technical questions that were 
suggested by the conference. It was unanimously decided to 
meet again on the second Saturday in January, to hear reports 
as to how the work was progressing. The teachers will be enter- 
tained by the school league. 

Now this is the record of just one trip made to one 
country-school district by one state supervisor in the 
company of the county superintendent, which resulted 
not only in a knowledge of what each school was doing 
and a criticism of its work, but also in a meeting of the 
teachers of the district with the trustees, in plans for 
cooperation among them, and in a whole list of concrete 
improvements. 

This more intimate and intensive cultivation of the 
teacher is working transformations everywhere. A super- 
visor says of one school: 

With a little effort on the part of the teacher in charge, the 
following improvements have been made in a one-room school 
since it came under our supervision. The building has been 
painted inside by the children and patrons; shades have been 
put up at the windows; sanitary water-cooler and individual 

236 



FIRST AID 

drinking-cups have been provided; lock has been put on the 
door; oil has been furnished for the floor; waste-paper basket 
has been furnished; and the most valuable improvement has 
been the seventeen-dollar equipment for a cooking-school. 

All this was done from the proceeds of two entertainments 
given at the school. The total improvements made in the last 
three months have cost thirty-three dollars and fifty cents. 

The school board appreciated the services of this teacher so 
much that after one month they raised her salary seven dollars 
per month and gave her lumber enough to put up a wood-house. 
The wood-house has been built by the patrons. 

It is because there are many concrete instances like 
these that this special work of teaching the teacher on 
the job is spreading. State after state has put demon- 
strators into the field to supplement the inadequate pro- 
fessional equipment of its country teachers, to knit the 
school more closely into the community, and to continue 
the real work of education outside the schoolroom and 
extend it over twelve months in the year. 

The West Virginia plan of district supervision, au- 
thorized by law in 1907, has attracted wide attention. 
The "district" in West Virginia is the magisterial district. 
In 1911-12 there were thirty-seven ''district" superin- 
tendents, working in nineteen counties the minimimi 
number of schools to one superintendent being fourteen, the 
maximum sixty-seven, with one hundred and twenty-six 
teachers. In 191 2-13 the nimiber of district superinten- 
dents was increased to fifty-eight in twenty-seven coimties. 

Although West Virginia has a compulsory school- 
attendance law, it has been found that since the appoint- 
ment of district supervisors the average daily attendance 
in thirty-seven districts has increased from 68.7 to 85.8 
per cent. The state superintendent argues that if the 
same rate of increase develops throughout the state, as he 
has reason to beHeve it will, it will so add to the daily 
attendance that the cost per pupil will drop from $23.92 

237 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

to $18.40. His argument is a good one. If the teacher 
and the equipment are provided for thirty pupils and 
only twenty attend, there is an immense loss to the state 
not only in money, but also in citizenship. The work 
of the district superintendents has resulted in better daily 
programs and courses of study, better equipment and 
buildings, more school-libraries, a deeper interest among 
the patrons. And, most important of all, the quality of 
the teaching has greatly improved. 

In 191 1 Oregon enacted a law which provides that in 
each county having more than sixty school districts the 
county school board shall arrange all the school districts 
in the county, except the first-class districts, into super- 
visory districts. Each supervisory district must contain 
not less than twenty nor more than fifty school districts. 
A district supervisor is placed in charge of each such 
supervisory district, and must devote his entire time, 
for at least ten months in the year, to the supervision of 
his schools. His salary is fixed at not less than $100 nor 
more than $120 per month. The State Department of 
Education makes a very favorable report of the effect 
of this law. 

In 19 1 2 Kentucky authorized the appointment, by any 
county board of education, of county supervisors, to super- 
vise the schools under the direction of the county super- 
intendent. 

North Dakota, by law, provides for one or more assis- 
tants to county superintendents having fifty or more 
schools. 

Maryland has enacted a provision similar to that of 
North Dakota. 

In Pennsylvania the school law of 191 1 provides that 
every county superintendent with more than two hundred 
teachers under his charge shall have one assistant; with 
more than four hundred teachers, two assistants; with 
more than six hundred and less than eight hundred, three 

238 



FIRST AID 

assistants ; and for every additional four hundred teachers, 
or fraction thereof, shall have an additional assistant. 
The minimum salary for each assistant is $1,200 a 
year. 

The work of the supervising industrial teachers in a few 
counties in Virginia, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, 
and Louisiana is similar to that of these district superin- 
tendents, except that more emphasis has been placed by 
them on simple industrial work. Many of them also, 
after supervising the schools during the session, organize 
garden clubs in the spring and act as demonstration 
agents in gardening, poultry-raising, and domestic science 
for the girls and their mothers during the vacation 
months. They are thus employed from nine to twelve 
months during the year. They do anything and every- 
thing that will improve the school and community life. 
They insist on painted or whitewashed schoolhouses, on 
clean school-yards, clean windows, clean rooms, clean 
floors, fresh air in the schoolroom, clean outhouses, and 
clean children. They help the teachers to arrange their 
daily programs; often teach classes; introduce cooking, 
sewing, manual training ; show the teachers how to corre- 
late work; visit the homes of the people; organize school 
leagues; hold patrons' meetings and talk improved home 
conditions; raise money for school improvements, and 
in every way possible relate the work of the school to 
the life of the community. They help the teacher do the 
next thing, usually by showing her how to get the pupils 
and parents to do it. 

To aid them in systematizing their work the supervising 
teachers are required to submit a monthly accounting of 
their time. 

In April, 191 1, the state supervisors of rural schools 
from ten states met in Jacksonville, Florida, organized, 
and worked out a program of cooperation. The construc- 
tive plans adopted by this conference are so full of promise 

239 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

for the development of a coherent program common to all 
the states that they deserve wide publicity. 

A. Rural School Survey 

As its first action the conference agreed upon plans for an 
educational survey in each of the ten states represented. The 
purpose of this survey is to collect and tabulate the facts that 
will set forth the status of the rural schools in each county. 
This survey has been started in four counties in nearly all the 
states represented. The plan is to add a few counties each 
quarter until each state is covered. 

The result will be a collection of facts concerning: 

I. The Rural Schoolhouse and its Equipment: 

The bare, cheerless one-room frame, on through the 
various types to the modern house, showing the 
dreary, forbidding surroundings of the farmers' 
children at school. 
II. The Teacher, setting forth: 

A. What her training has been. 

B. What has been her career as a teacher. 

C. How she is doing her work. 

D. Her salary, with cost of living. 

E. The difficulties that beset her. 

F. How her efficiency can be increased. 
III. The School, exhibiting: 

A. Attendance: 

1. The children's ages, health, etc. 

2. What per cent, are in school: 

(a) the entire term; 
{h) part of the term; 
(c) not at all. 

B. Instruction: 

1. What is taught, with lists of subjects. 

2. Nimiber of grades and classes; number 

and length of recitation periods, etc. 

3. The methods of teaching: 

(a) Traditional and fruitless. 
(&) Semi-effective, 
(c) Effective. 

4. The training each child gets. 

240 



FIRST AID 

IV. Conditions that Determine the School: 

A. The multipHcity of schools in the district and 

county, and the causes that produce this. ; 

B. Small amount for maintenance of each school. 

C. System of administration and its influence on 

the school. 

D. Result. 

E. Is it possible for such conditions to command 

the services of a trained teacher? 

F. How can favorable conditions be brought about? 
V. The People: 

I. Their conception of the function of the school 
and their attitude toward it. 

The county superintendents and teachers are taking a zealous 
interest in the investigations, hence the supervisors expect to 
gather the fundamental data needful in working out the problem 
of mral-school development. 

B. Constructive Plans 
The members of the conference agreed that: 

1. The fundamental necessity is a content for the rural 

school. What exists is traditional and well-nigh 
worthless. It was further agreed that this content 
is to be worked out through experimental and demon- 
stration schools. 

2. To create conditions that will make it possible for 

trained teachers to work in the country, existing 
schools must be consolidated, wherever consolidation 
is feasible. 

3. As it is impossible even then for the existing institutions 

to train a sufficient number of teachers for the schools, 
the teachers must be trained in the schools. This 
demands a system of expert supervision. 

It is believed that taxation will become an easy matter when 
the schools are made vital and effective. The question now is 
the best system of taxation. Shall the burden rest upon the 
local district, upon the county, or upon the state? 

The general working-plan can be summarized as: i. Content; 
2. Consolidation; 3. Supervision; 4. Taxation. Exceptional 
17 241 



THE WORK OF THE EURAL SCHOOL 

conditions in one state impel the supervisor to put taxation 
first. In other states the supervisors deem concurring efforts 
advisable. 

I. The Content of the Rural School: 

To get at the bottom facts the supervisors are in- 
vestigating the causes of the impotency of the 
traditional school, the results of which will be 
duly submitted. Various constructive plans are 
under way; the most notable of these is the ex- 
perimental effort at Rock Hill, South Carolina, 
the purpose of which is to work out a germinal 
school which will transplant itself. 
1 1 . Consolidation : 

The conference agreed upon plans for collecting 
data concerning consolidation possibilities, plans, 
and prospects. Each county superintendent will 
be furnished with blank forms for: 

A. A statement showing — revenues of the dis- 

trict for school purposes; expenditures; 
number of schools, etc. 

B. A statement of the cost of maintenance for 

the existing schools and of the cost of 
the new central building with equipment, 
along with estimate of maintenance for 
the consolidated school. 

C. A pen-sketch showing: 

1. The central school toward which 

weaker schools are gravitating, or 
the new center, with the surround- 
ing schools. 

2. Distances between schools. 

3. Number of children in each school, 

with estimated number in the con- 
solidated school. 

4. Number of school-wagons. 

D. A map of the county showing consolidation 

possibilities. 

E. A statement setting forth: 

1. The causes that are working for 

consolidation. Why are some 
schools gravitating toward a cen- 
tral point? 

2. What keeps consolidation from tak- 

242 



FIRST AID 

ing place? What hindrances and 
influences are holding it back? 
3. What is needed to remove these 
hindrances? What must be done 
to bring the consolidation about at 
once? This will show what sup- 
plement may be needed for local 
resources or efforts. 
III. Supervision: 

The state supervisors are formulating plans to show : 

A. The waste of public funds due to the lack of 

efficient supervision. 

B. The present status of supervision in each 

county; area, number of teachers and 
schools nominally under supervision; 
salary and efficiency of the county super- 
intendent, etc. 

C. The necessity for the immediate introduc- 

tion of expert supervision seen in: 

1. The untrained teachers that fill the 

country schools. Inexperienced 
young women and young men se- 
lected from the brighter pupils 
of the schools, often children of 
trustees or of parents who have 
influence with trustees. 

2. The fruitless methods of teaching 

handed down from past genera- 
tions. The training of the teacher 
in modern methods is the next task. 

3. The perpetual changing of teachers 

from school to school. A teacher 
seldom remains in a school two 
successive sessions. The school 
thus develops no individuality. 
Children four months with a 
teacher, eight months out of 
school, and then comes a stranger. 
Continuing intellectual effort un- 
known. 

D. The supervisors are therefore working out 

plans for: 

I. Organizing the school system so as 
to make supervision possible, 
243 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

2. Training the teachers now at work 
in the schools. 

Beginning next fall, when the survey is under way the quar- 
terly reports of the state supervisors will exhibit: 

1. The results of the investigation, with the present status 

of the rural schools, ending with a collection of data 
for the entire state. 

2. The consolidation plans and prospects, with statement 

of what has been accomplished. 

3. Supervision plans and prospects, with a statement of 

what has been accomplished. 

4. Progress in legislation and taxation. 

These reports will contain the data needful in any effort for 
the development of our rural schools. 

To collect data and to focus it on the vital problems, the 
conference created the follov/ing permanent committees; 

1. Legislation and taxation. 

2. Course of study. 

3. Community activities of the school. 

4. Consolidation. 

5. Supervision. 

6. Experimental schools. 

The reports of these committees, to be submitted a year 
hence, will set forth the year's achievement and recommend the 
next thing to be done, along with ways and means. 

It is a big work — that of carrying first aid to the citizen- 
maker. It consists in holding up the hands of ill-trained, 
inexperienced teachers, struggling alone in the little one- 
room schoolhouses at the thousands of dim crossroads 
all through the land. Sometimes the supervising teacher 
must show some discouraged Miss Hopkins or Miss Briggs 
how to teach some particular little thick-head his lessons ; 
sometimes she must persuade a reluctant school board to 
call for a larger tax levy, even if they can't see the object 

244 



FIRST AID 

of the extra month of school it is to pay for; sometimes 
she must show by personal use of the broom what a school- 
room free from cobwebs and with a garnished floor looks 
like — she must do the next thing, whatever it is. It 
is her job to make the work of the teacher effective, to fill 
in the gaps between the teacher's training and efficiency. 
It will be many a long year before all the teachers in our 
rural schools will be able to attend the normal schools and 
training classes ; the only hope of securing efficient teach- 
ing in the rural schools within the near future is to send 
first aid to the inexperienced teachers on the job. 



XIII 

THE OPPORTUNITY OF THE COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT 

THROUGHOUT the United States the county is the 
unit of rural -school supervision, except in New 
England and Ohio, where the unit is the township; New 
York, where the unit is the district, which may be a 
county or only part of a county; Virginia, where the unit 
is the division made up of one or more counties; and 
Nevada, where the unit is the district made up of from, one 
to six counties. In thirty-eight states the rural schools 
have no supervision except that given by the county 
superintendent. In twenty-eight states the county super- 
intendent is elected by the people in the same manner as 
other county officers. In Maryland, Louisiana, North 
Carolina and Georgia he is appointed by the county board 
of education, and Iowa has recently passed a similar law; 
in Tennessee he is appointed by the county court; in 
Indiana by a county board composed of trustees, one 
from each township; in Pennsylvania by a county board 
composed of township school directors; in Delaware by the 
Governor ; and in New Jersey by the State Board of Edu- 
cation. The district superintendents of New York are 
elected for five years by district boards of directors; and 
the division superintendents of Virginia and of Nevada 
are appointed by the state boards of education for a term 
of four years. In other states the term varies from four 
to two years. In nineteen states the county superinten- 
dent is elected biennially by the people; changes are fre- 

246 



THE COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT 

quent; and in only seven of these nineteen states is he 
required to have teaching experience. In some states 
the county superintendents are expected to be adminis- 
trators ; in some, supervisors ; in some, both ; and in still 
others, neither. As a supervisory unit the average county 
is too large and contains too many schools for efficient 
supervision by the county superintendent. To meet this 
difficulty the office of assistant county superintendent has 
been created in certain states for the supervision of school 
programs and methods of instruction. In some states 
some of the excessive burden of the county superinten- 
dent's work has been shifted to district superintendents, 
supervising teachers, state inspectors and supervisors. 
But this movement toward efficient supervision is pro- 
gressing very slowly. In some states the county super- 
intendent is still overworked and underpaid; the office, 
therefore, fails to attract the best-trained men, and as a 
result the rural schools and the rural communities suffer 
for want of intelligent leadership. 

But here and there the very difficulties of the situation 
have made an especial appeal to the patriotism of men 
and women capable of seeing the relation of the rural- 
school problem to community and national prosperity, 
and they have done work of far-reaching and permanent 
value. 

If it is asked what the county superintendent can do for 
the good of his community, the answer is. What can he not 
do? His real difficulty lies in an excess of opportunity. 
To begin with, there are his routine duties — the adminis- 
tration of the county school funds, the examination and 
certification of teachers, the keeping of statistical records 
and making reports to the county board and the state 
superintendent of public instruction, conducting teachers' 
institutes, and visiting schools for general supervisory 
purposes. But as the rural school becomes the center of 
community life — the training-ground for citizenship in the 

247 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

widest sense of the word — and as assistants are provided 
to relieve him of the details of supervision, the county 
superintendent faces unrivaled opportunities for develop- 
ing and rebuilding his county socially and economically. 

We know a coimty superintendent of schools who, upon 
assuming office in 1903, faced a school situation that had 
not advanced six months in twenty years. The county 
was thinly settled and financially poor; the schoolhouses 
were wretched; the taxes were utterly inadequate; the 
teachers poorly paid; the term short; the people had 
ceased to hope for good schools. The former superinten- 
dent had '* visited " the schools regularly, giving as many as 
two hours to each school in the year; he had sent in 
monthly and annual reports to the state superintendent; 
had held a one to three day funereal affair called a ** teach- 
ers' institute ' ' — all this for twenty years ! And yet in 1903 
there was not a sanitary school-building in the county, not 
a library or a debating club, not so much as a thought of 
making the school a meeting-place for the commimity, or 
in any way relating its work to the community life. 
When the new superintendent — with the extravagant sal- 
ary of four hundred dollars a year — took hold he first made 
a survey of actual conditions and then asked himself: 
"What is the matter here? What is back of this sterile 
educational condition?" And he saw several things that 
answered his questions. The roads were very bad, thus 
keeping people from the markets, from the churches, and 
from the schools, from social visits and gatherings. He 
hunted out the few people who were interested in good 
roads, joined with them, and helped to organize a good- 
roads movement. 

There was only one telephone line in the county, and 
only two telephones on that. He saw at once that the 
isolation of the people could be overcome first by tele- 
phone lines and then by roads. He saw that with tele- 
phones throughout the county, people would be able to 

248 



THE COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT 

get to market by voice if not by body, could talk with 
one another, could save hours and even days of time in 
innumerable ways, and could thus enlarge their com- 
munity life. What particularly appealed to him was the 
isolation of the country women during the winter months. 
He talked the matter over with three or four — one 
of them an active good-roads man — and a telephone com- 
pany was organized. He became general manager, and, 
though laughed at by many, he talked telephones all over 
the county while visiting schools. And while talking 
telephones he talked good roads and good schools. In a 
year's time the entire county and five or six adjoining 
counties were networked with telephone lines, and he 
could talk with most of his school trustees and to many 
of his teachers at any hour of the day, wherever he hap- 
pened to be. 

The building of telephone lines was his first step toward 
improving the schools, because it was the first step in 
breaking up the terrible isolation of country life. While 
building telephone lines and visiting schools he came into 
contact with all classes of people, stayed in their homes, 
and talked better conditions in season and out. When 
he left the superintendency in 1905, after two years of 
agitation, the school and road questions were getting 
warm, indifference had given place to earnest advocacy or 
violent opposition, and when that stage is reached the 
battle is practically won. The good-roads advocates and 
the good-school advocates have kept together — they need 
each other — and in the past six years there has been more 
improvement in roads and schools than in the previous 
thirty-five years combined! 

This is rural leadership : To inventory actual conditions ; 
to diagnose the underlying trouble or community disease; 
to show the people how to organize the forces that produce 
a cure; to "stay by the job" with a persistent, uncon- 
querable, fearless ^determination. This is rural leader- 

249 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

ship as one county superintendent of schools under- 
stands it. 

Four years ago a vacancy occurred in a county superin- 
tendency. A young preacher who had formerly taught 
applied for the place and was elected. Asked why he had 
decided to leave the ministry for school-work, he replied 
that he was leaving the pulpit only for a time: ''The 
greatest need of these people right now is education," said 
he. "There are several preachers in this county, but no- 
body is working for better schools. When this county 
has adequate schools I may resume my work in the 
pulpit." With a zeal not surpassed by Paul, with tact 
and great energy, with absolute fearlessness, with definite 
policies, he is transforming the schools of his county. 
From a place near the foot of the list his county system 
has climbed to a position among the half-dozen best 
school systems in the state. Working on a salary of 
about seventeen hundred dollars, he spends probably half 
of it in pushing his work and in helping ambitious girls 
to attend one of the state normal schools. The county 
has been there for generations ; the schools for more than 
forty years. When he took hold the school system was 
where it had been for decades. What caused the change? 
This superintendent put his great energy and heart and 
brain into his work. He temporarily left the ministry to 
place educational opportunities in reach of all the children 
of his county. He has linked himself with every forward 
movement in the county. He is not uneasy about his 
"job." He is not thinking about that side of his work. 
He long ago placed that matter in the hands of God, and is 
giving every ounce of brain and heart and energy to 
finance adequate and beautiful buildings; to make the 
school the community center; to get the best of teachers 
and pay them good salaries. He has a vision — an intelli- 
gent sympathy with every movement that makes for the 
improvement of life — economic, social, moral, mental, 

250 



THE COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT 

physical — in his community. That is leadership. That 
is the opportunity of the county superintendent of schools. 

Three years ago a board of education deliberately 
refused to re-elect a university graduate as superintendent 
in a county, and selected in his place a man who had only 
a high-school education. The man selected had previously 
taught a year or two, and then had gone to work on a 
railroad; when elected he was farming. He was a school 
trustee — the most active trustee in his coimty. It seemed 
very unwise to turn down a scholar for a man with limited 
education. Why was it done? Because the scholar did 
not get anywhere. All his motion was up and down, and 
never forward. The other man had an enthusiasm for 
schools that amounted to a passion. He is now revolu- 
tionizing educational conditions in his county. In two 
years he has done more than was done in the previous 
thirty-eight years. What was the difference between 
these men? 

The scholar made his round of ''visits"; shook hands 
with the teachers; talked platitudes to the children; 
made out his reports; talked about the importance of 
education; deplored the indifference of the people; and 
folded his hands in pious resignation over the sad condi- 
tion of affairs. The other man made his round of visits, 
too, and saw things and told the people about these things. 
He shook hands with the teachers, and then he turned 
in and shook the people and shook them hard. He did not 
stop at deploring the indifference of the people ; he began 
to wake them up. And to-day he has the whole county 
aroused — those in favor of better schools stirred because 
the schools are not better, and those opposed to taxation 
stirred because they see the school tax going up to a 
figure that will get results. 

One night this superintendent, while on one of his 
visits to country schools, stopped at a modest home in 
a remote rural community. An old ramshackle school 

251 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

which had been locked upon with contempt for many- 
years had been displaced, and under his aggressive leader- 
ship a nice new building had taken its place and had just 
opened. He spent the night at this little home, and 
learned that the little boy and girl in the home had never 
gone to school and that their parents were not sending 
them to the new school. Neither of the parents could 
read or write. 

He talked with them very seriously about the im- 
portance of educating these children, and soon persuaded 
them to let him take the two children to school the next 
morning. He took them in his buggy, drove the short 
distance to the school, and had them enrolled. A few 
months later he had occasion to visit this school again, 
and stopped at the same home to spend the night. After 
tea, when the supper-table was cleared, the children and 
both parents took their seats around the table, and in a 
few minutes the children were teaching their father and 
mother how to read and write. He learned that they 
were being given lessons regularly by the children. 

This superintendent has enthusiasm; he thoroughly 
believes in what he is doing; he has definite policies; he 
is determined to have a good school in reach of every 
child in his county ; and he has every opponent of school 
progress on the defensive. He has a heart that reaches 
out through his hand to every child in his county. He 
believes that the children should have a square deal. 
That is rural leadership — the opportunity of the county 
superintendent of schools. 

Do not misunderstand! We are not decrying scholar- 
ship. Scholarship is a good thing to have on one's person 
if one has common sense enough to control it. But if it 
makes one a Pharisee, woe be to his soul and to his en- 
thusiasm! If it short-circuits one's energy, wherein is 
every-day life benefited? Scholarship is a great thing if 
well used. Like money, it should be put to good use and 

252 



THE COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT 

not hoarded or selfishly used. We have plenty of mere 
scholars in the world ! Oh, how many of them we have ! 
But the thing that moves this world is enthusiasm, and 
when well directed it is the power that makes the wheels 
of the world go round. The need is for scholarship that 
is consecrated to human betterment. 

Two years ago a new superintendent took hold of a 
large county that was in a very bad way educationally. 
There was that dreary expanse seen in so many country 
districts: wretched school-buildings; poorly paid, dis- 
heartened teachers; indifferent attendance; no interest 
in the schools among the masses of the people. This 
condition had existed for thirty-five years. After work- 
ing at the problem a year this county superintendent 
concluded he would kill two birds with one stone — ^im- 
prove the school-buildings and grounds and at the same 
time arouse the interest of the people in their schools. 
How did he go about it ? He sent out a circular asking the 
patrons to come to the schoolhouse on Washington's 
Birthday. He stated that the children would have appro- 
priate exercises, and that he wished the people to bring 
hoes, axes, brooms, paint, and other materials to clean up 
and improve the schools and school-grounds. He got the 
teachers and pupils stirred up, and they in turn stirred 
up the patrons. 

What was the result? There was never before such a 
celebration of the birthday of the Father of his Country! 
The people turned out by the himdreds. They came with 
their dinners and stayed all day. They cleaned up the 
schoolhouses and school-yards; they painted and white- 
washed school-buildings; they built fences; they formed 
school leagues — one of the most potent factors in rural- 
school work; they contributed money for school libraries, 
and maps, and flags. They did in one day for their own 
schools what probably could not have been done other- 
wise at an expense of several thousand dollars. And, 

253 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

better than all this, they got an idea and an example of the 
good of community effort — of cooperation — and became 
interested in their schools by putting their own hearts 
and time and energy into school improvement. 

Washington's Birthday was never celebrated more ap- 
propriately anywhere. To clean up a schoolhouse and 
its environment is more patriotic than raising a flag 
over a dirty shack! Is it not clear that it is much easier 
to get the school levy increased; much easier to talk 
improved school conditions; much easier to interest the 
people in consolidated schools; much easier to get things 
done for schools in that county than ever before? That 
superintendent touched a chord that awakened other 
chords. He saw a strategic opening. He skilfully used 
it. And that is leadership. 

The following incident occurred in a mountain county : 
A stream and gorge separated two communities that 
would otherwise have been only one community. There 
were two small schools to serve these communities. The 
new coimty superintendent believed it would be a good 
idea to make the two communities one community by 
building a good foot-bridge and building one nice, central 
school. But he found that for years the county super- 
visors had refused to build a foot-bridge for this purpose, 
claiming that it was up to the school trustees, while the 
school trustees declared they would build schoolhouses, 
but not bridges. And through this kind of pig-headedness 
that exists in so many communities the children had for 
years been deprived of a graded and high school. But 
the new superintendent went at the matter quietly. He 
told the trustees that the children, not the supervisors, 
were being hurt, and he got their agreement to furnish 
the materials if the supervisors would do the work. Then 
he approached the supervisors and told them in turn that 
their refusal thus far had hurt the children, not the 
trustees. He asked the supervisors if they would agree 

254 



THE COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT 

to build the bridge if he could get the trustees to furnish 
the material. They consented. Whereupon he informed 
them that the deal was closed. The bridge was built; 
the new central school was built; these two commimities 
have now been fused into one community, and they have 
a modem consolidated school. 

"That is a very small thing," some one may say. 
Yes, but all big things are made up of many small things. 
It is the power to fuse many small things into one great 
whole that spells success and means the capacity to lead. 
And it is because so many school-people sit down and wait 
for some big opportunity to come along, and refuse to take 
hold of the first thing and the next thing, that we do not 
have better schools and better cooperation and better 
conditions in our rural communities. The school super- 
intendent or principal or teacher who ''despises the day of 
small things" will never go far along the road to success. 
There is not any small thing when that thing is an effort 
to improve life. And if a worker for better social condi- 
tions, whether through schools or otherwise, thinks that 
an3rthing is too small for his great mind and his transcen- 
dent dignity to notice, the smallness is in him, not in the 
thing that waits to be done. 

The greatest work for the regeneration of society is not 
being done in the high places. The kindergarten is but 
a little thing — just a Httle group of children spending two 
or three hours a day with a teacher who is planting in their 
hearts the ideals of a social democracy. The United 
States Senate is a big thing; and yet the kindergarten 
has probably done more in the last twenty years to re- 
generate human society than the United States Sena^te. 

Leadership is needed everywheTe, and nowhere is there 
more crying need for it than in our rural communities. 
What kind of leadership? Not a leadership that success- 
fully organizes one group to prey upon another group; 
not a leadership that successfully organizes one business 

255 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

to beat down another business; not a leadership whose 
success means the destruction of a rival. Such leadership 
is degrading in purpose and in result. We need a leader- 
ship that spells better social conditions, better citizenship ; 
a leadership that succeeds, not through competition and 
not through combination for selfish purposes, but through 
cooperation for the benefit of humanity. That kind of 
leadership bruises no hearts, taints no character, begets 
no human despair. If it destroys, it destroys only that 
which obstructs social progress. 

The task of the schoolman of to-day is to organize Life 
itself through the school. That school alone completely 
justifies itself which consciously, constantly, and sympa- 
thetically reaches out, touches, and improves every social 
and economic interest that concerns its community. 
• If this is the proper conception of a school; if education 
is not merely the learning of books, but the development 
of power for service; if it is not merely the development 
of power for service, but the development of interest in 
and the desire to serve every phase of life in a community, 
it follows that a superintendent of schools or a principal 
or a teacher may make himself the instrument for the 
proper organization of life in his county. 

What has been the reason for the haphazard growth of 
our communities, whether city, town, or county? Why 
is it that in the great majority of our communities those 
things which touch the civic life have, like Topsy, ''just 
growed," unorganized, unthought-out, unbalanced, tem- 
porary, unsatisfactory, leading usually into a blind alley? 
Has it not been because we have had so few leaders with a 
vision? 

Not in the history of this country have there ever been 
such opportunities for leadership as are offered to-day to 
rural-school superintendents. There is so much to do, 
and they have such a splendid vantage-ground, that it is 
almost impossible to overstate the opportunities that lie 

256 



THE COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT 

in their grasp to transform the communities in which they 
live. 

Now, we have all had tons of advice from every con- 
ceivable source as to what a superintendent should do: 
He should visit the schools, and he has done so; he should 
advise with the teachers, and the poor things have cer- 
tainly been dosed with advice; he should talk with the 
pupils, and most of the children can repeat in their sleep 
the platitudes they have heard from his lips; he should 
make reports, showing how many visits he has made to 
the schools, and the state departments are filled with his 
records; he should hold teachers' institutes, and they 
have been held throughout this coimtry, year in and year 
out, where the teachers have met and discussed such 
thrilling topics as ''How to Maintain Discipline," "How 
to Teach Grammar," ''The Value of Latin," "Is Corporal 
Punishment Necessary?" etc. And yet 60 per cent, of 
the country schoolhouses in the United States are unfit, 
from the standpoint of health and sanitation, for the use 
of children. Tens of thousands of schoolhouses are not 
schoolhouses, but shambles. In tens of thousands of 
them the work is purely and absolutely formal, and in 
these the schoolroom, instead of being a place of life, is a 
place of death to youth and hope and enthusiasm. What 
is the matter? A lack of aggressive leadership; a lack of 
a vision as to what the school is, and what its possibilities 
are. 

In every community will be fotmd one or more persons 
who woiild like to do something for the improvement of 
the roads; another group is interested in public health; 
another group, in better schools; another group, in more 
scientific methods of farming; another group, in com- 
munity libraries; another group, in providing lectures and 
other entertainments for the community; another group, 
in athletics and play. 

The county superintendent better than any one else 
18 257 



THE WORK OF THE RUKAL SCHOOL 

can and should interest each of these groups in the work 
of all the other groups, and cause each group to see that 
by "joining hands all 'round" a complete transformation 
of the community can be accomplished. He should link 
himself sympathetically and actively with the state 
boards of health, agriculture, and public highways, and 
try to get each of them severally and in a body to cooper- 
ate with him in the improvement of his community. It 
is not necessary that the county superintendent should 
be an expert in road-building, or in public health and 
sanitation, or in scientific farming, or in athletics, but he 
should be expert enough to know the difference between a 
good road and a mud-puddle, to detect the superiority of 
brain-farming over elbow-farming, to know the difference 
between the teacher who arouses the enthusiasm of the 
children and one who casts the shadow of death wherever 
she goes. 

It is a rare thing to find a man or woman who combines 
the vision, the patience, the aggressive will, and the ad- 
ministrative talent to bring together into one organized 
whole the various groups that may be found in almost 
every community, so that there may be a cooperation that 
will bring great results. Why are they rare ? Why should 
not every county, why should not every rural community, 
have leaders of this type ? All of these activities lie within 
the domain of education. Education is the development 
of all life, not of one section or of one compartment of life. 
If this is true, think of the various things that may very 
properly occupy the attention of a county superintendent 
— ^proper health conditions in and around the school, in- 
cluding ventilation, lighting, proper school-hours, and 
play; attractive school buildings and grounds; consoli- 
dation and transportation; community and school 
libraries at the school; community entertainments at the 
school; public sanitation and hygiene; good roads lead- 
ing to and from the school ; better conditions on the farm, 

258 



THE COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT 

including better gardens, better farming, better water- 
supplies, and better sanitary conditions in and around the 
homes. Do not all these things tend toward the impiove- 
ment of life, and do they not properly come within the 
domain of education? Think for a moment what would 
be the result in this country if next spring and summer 
every child who left the schoolroom, from the sixth grade 
up, should have an intelligent conception of all these 
necessities and an enthusiastic desire to secure them for 
their communities ! 

The schoolroom should give the children these civic 
ideals. It can be done, it should be done, it must be done, 
if we are to conserve our natural resources; if we are to 
cure national inefficiency and conserve national efficiency; 
if we are to prevent national decay ; if we are to solve the 
human problem. A superintendent may say that his com- 
munity is not interested in any of these things, but he is 
mistaken. Some person or persons can be found who will 
be interested in at least one of these activities, and that is 
all that is really necessary. Starting at Nowhere with 
Nothing and getting Somewhere with Something is, after 
all, the real test of useful leadership. This nation would 
be transformed if every school- worker would do his or her 
usual work in so unusual a manner that the unusual would 
become the usual! 

It is not necessary to wait to perfect a scheme or plan. 
It is, of course, all-important to have a definite and wise 
plan, but there are, alas, so many people who are not 
willing to undertake anything unless every obstacle has 
been met and overcome before the plan is even started! 
Such people are vanity and vexation of spirit. They are 
moral cowards who always see a lion in the path. They 
desire to wait until somebody else has worked out the 
plan. Suppose everybody sat back and waited? 

Others are afraid that they will make a mistake or do a 
new thing awkwardly. Better make several mistakes and 

259 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

do things very awkwardly than to sit still and do nothing. 
It has been wisely said that * ' many of our fairest schemes 
fail because of their very perfectness." 

"This is the King's business and requires haste," and 
the county superintendent needs to take hold, and to take 
hold now — to take hold of something definite for the 
improvement of the rural community through the schools ; 
to assume an aggressive attitude; to take his official life 
in his hands, or rather to place his official life in the hands 
of the Lord God, and go to work; if necessary, to fight, 
and to let it be known once for all that he is enlisted not 
for a battle, but for the whole war. 

A county superintendent who is not fearless should have 
the "recall" applied to him. He should understand that 
if not fearless and aggressive in behalf of the children, 
he will be marked for slaughter, and that if he does his 
duty he will be protected by the school authorities at any 
cost. If he does his duty faithfully he has a hard time; 
it is then that he most needs the active support and pro- 
tection of his superior officers. 

And is it not high time superintendents were letting it 
be known that they propose to champion the cause of the 
country children and help them come into their long- 
withheld heritage of opportunity; their long-denied right 
to a healthy body, a trained capacity, and a desire to serve 
the state ? Who can doubt the issue of battle ? In a fight 
for children's rights there can be but one outcome. And 
if superintendents are afraid of the fight they should get 
out of school-work. A school superintendency, whether 
state, county, or city, is the last place on earth for a 
moral coward, or a place-seeker, or an unconsecrated man 
or woman. 

We speak of the " f tmdamentals " in education — what 
are the fundamentals ? A sound body, a trained capacity, 
and an unselfish outlook on life. And yet year in and 
year out we permit the children to go to school and to 

260 



THE COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT 

acquire arithmetic and adenoids ; history and hookworm ; 
algebra and astigmatism; cube root and consumption; 
Caesar and spinal curvature. And then they go forth to 
serve — themselves ! Now what doth it profit a state if its 
children gain the whole world of knowledge and lose both 
health and the soul of good citizenship? 

Superintendents and teachers are engaged in one great 
work. They fight ignorance and inefficiency, which know 
no state lines. An illiterate child in Virginia is a matter of 
grave concern to Iowa; a diseased child in Iowa should 
awaken grave concern in Vermont. If ignorance and 
disease scorn state boundaries, surely all school- workers 
can take a national outlook and consecrate their manhood 
and womanhood to the regeneration of human society 
through the twenty million children of our public schools. 
It is not money that is most needed, but that which money 
cannot buy — a consecrated leadership that not only 
preaches a crusade, but lives a crusade in behalf of Amer- 
ican childhood. 



XIV 

THE STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 

IN some of our states the state superintendent of pub- 
lic instruction is an administrator; in others he is a 
supervisor; in others he is both; in some he is neither. 

In nearly every state in the Union he is elected by vote 
of the people, and in nearly every state the people vote 
for a party name, not for a man or a woman who has a 
definite educational program and the experience and 
ability to carry that program out. In one or two states he 
is appointed and removable at will by the successful 
gubernatorial candidate of one or another party machine. 
Depending for his position upon the good will of a party 
or its momentary leaders, he is not likely to be too definite 
in advocating educational reforms that depend for their 
success upon the tedious process of educating the people 
to their importance. Definiteness and the courage of con- 
victions are exceedingly dangerous things in a close state 
or in one in which the political leaders, and not the su- 
perintendent, control the educational department, and, 
what is more to the point, control the party machinery. 
Not only is his tenure of office nearly everywhere uncer- 
tain, but in several states is made short by enactment, 
and in a few states crass stupidity not only makes his ten- 
ure short, but makes it impossible for him to succeed 
himself. 

The head of the extension work in one of the state 
universities says: "The boys' and girls' club work, which 

262 



THE STATE SUPERINTENDENT 

was started by the state superintendent, has been turned 
over entirely to this department. The change in state 
superintendents (every two years) made it almost im- 
possible for a permanent policy to be developed." 

Here is a revel of rotation that should make every 
political hack hopeful! The application of the pork- 
barrel philosophy of government to the office of state 
superintendent of public instruction has brought into 
contempt a position that should be one of the most 
responsible in public life. Dutton and Snedden in their 
epoch-making book on school administration have 
hardly one word to say for or about the state superin- 
tendent. Why should they? His local habitation is but 
temporary. His name to-day may refer to one who is 
addressing ten thousand teachers with authority; to- 
morrow to a peddler of encyclopedias or subscription books 
desperately struggling to keep his family alive, 'for his 
tenure of office, like his salary, is in almost all the states 
disgracefully short. 

But here and there he is slowly rising above the miasma 
of partisan politics and pork-barrel philosophy. A few 
states have begun to recognize that the state superinten- 
dent of public instruction should be a man or woman wath 
a vision of the true function of public education in a 
democracy, with a passion for pubHc service, and a grasp 
of the possibilities of developing an efficient citizenship 
through the schools. In these states he is a permanent 
officer, appointed because of his special qualifications at 
an adequate salary, and removable only on public proof 
of incompetence or malfeasance in office. When this 
condition becomes imiversal the state superintendent will 
be administrator or supervisor according to the needs of 
the moment, but always helper, inspirer, organizer, and 
leader. He will be the central educational dynamo in his 
state, sending his power of sympathy, inspiration, and 
courage into every school. 

263 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

Massachusetts looks over the United States and picks 
any one she thinks worthy of this great office, pays an 
adequate salary, and offers a life tenure for efficiency of 
administration and supervision. New York State does 
likewise. And New Jersey has shown a tendency to do 
the same thing, though the experiment is still too young 
there to show whether the office will be made, as it is 
in some other states, a part of the perquisites of the 
Governor, or will be regarded as above the changes and 
spoils of office. 

This is not on the face of it an encouraging outlook. 
Such conditions and limitations do not invite the best 
talent to offer itself for educational leadership in the 
public-school systems of the states unless there happens 
to arise, as there sometimes does, a man or woman who is 
willing to make a personal sacrifice for a great cause; 
and this has often occurred, as the history of this office in 
many states will show. But it is not merely pathetic — 
it is tragic — that men and women of great capacity for 
leadership in this important office raust make a large 
personal sacrifice or refuse to apply for the position. For 
of all offices in the state it is the one that should by 
permanency of tenure and b}^ salary invite and demand the 
ablest leadership that can be found. Of all places it is 
the very last one that should be sought by the demagogue 
or the moral coward or the unconsecrated man. A traffic 
in the opportunities of hundreds of thousands of children 
is a sin so heinous that language halts in attempting to 
describe it. 

The limitations attached to the office of state superin- 
tendent of public instruction in most of our states, the 
restrictions placed upon that officer in any attempt to 
administer and supervise the school laws for the purpose 
of making efficient citizens, are not unique to that par- 
ticular office. It has been the history of all our public 
offices to a greater or less degree. 

264 



THE STATE SUPERINTENDENT 

Indeed, it seems difficult for a people who attempt to 
govern themselves to see the folly of trying to administer 
public business by scattering and dividing responsibility. 
The folly of shifting administrations in great commercial 
organizations is a lesson our people have gradually learned 
through bitter experience. To invest large sums of 
money in a commercial enterprise and then to intrust that 
enterprise to amateurs, or to make the administrative 
position in that enterprise the prey of spoils politics, 
would be regarded by the smallest investor as recklessly 
unbusinesslike, and yet in our greatest business of all — the 
federal, state, and local government — that is precisely what 
we do. Our national government is run without a pro- 
gram and without any regard for business principles. 
In January, 191 2, the Federal Commission on Economy 
and Efficiency completed a survey of the national govern- 
ment. In transmitting this survey to Congress the 
President said: 

Never before have the foundations been laid for a thorough 
consideration of the relation of all the government's parts. 
No comprehensive effort has hitherto been made to list its 
multifarious activities or group them in such a way as to present 
a clear picture of what the government is doing. Never has a 
complete description been given of the agencies through which 
these activities are performed. At no time has the attempt 
been made to study all these activities and agencies with a 
view to the assignment of each activity to the agency best 
fitted for its performance, to the avoidance of duplication of 
work and plant, to the integration of all administrative agencies 
of the government into a unified organization for the most 
effective and economical despatch of public business. Admin- 
istrative officials have been called upon to discharge their 
duties without that full knowledge of the machinery under 
their direction which is so necessary to effective control, much 
less have they had information regarding agencies in other 
services that might be made use of. Under such circumstances, 
each service has been compelled to rely upon itself, to build up 

265 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

its own organization, and to provide its own facilities regardless 
of those in existence elsewhere. 

After a hundred years of self-government it required a 
special investigation of a special commission to reveal 
even to the officers of government precisely what the 
federal government was. While our schools and colleges 
learnedly expounded the Declaration of Independence and 
the tri-partite division of federal authority under the 
Constitution, while our newspapers entertained their 
readers with cock-pit gossip of interdepartmental scandals 
and the personal foibles of candidates and bosses, the 
complacent voter went to the polls and took merit to him- 
self for dropping a scratched paper into the slit of a box, 
that, for all he knew, might just as well have been the lid 
of an oven. If our government is in confusion, our public 
business shot through and overgrown with inefficiency, 
corruption, and graft, who is responsible but the compla- 
cent, self-satisfied citizen and his public-school system, and 
his newspaper and magazine press, which, in response 
to his demand, purveys rumor and gossip instead of 
facts ? 

We are a business people. We glory in our commercial 
triumphs. We make no secret of the fact that we regard 
ourselves as resourceful at a business transaction as the 
Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's court. The phrase 
"a billion-dollar Congress" we like to roll upon oiu: 
tongues, and our complacency purrs when foreign observers 
declare that such lavishness in public expenditure would 
bankrupt a less opulent nation. We are a business 
people ; but how far do we apply our business intelligence 
to that most vast of all our business establishments, the 
federal government? In May, 191 2, the Subcommittee 
of the House Committee on Appropriations held public 
hearings to ascertain the wisdom of continuing public 
support to the President's Commission on Economy and 

266 



THE STATE SUPERINTENDENT 

Efficiency. What follows is a characteristic fragment of 
the evidence: 

Mr. Cleveland (Chairman of the Commission on Economy 
and Efficiency): The only information that can be obtained 
about the current liabiHties of the United States Government 
is the amount of Treasury drafts and checks on depositories 
outstanding and short-term loans and the matured debt. There 
are millions of dollars of obHgations outstanding that nobody 
knows anything about, and as to whether the amount is $ioo,- 
000,000 or $50,000,000, no one can even guess. With this 
situation in mind we claim it is impossible for the Secretary of 
the Treasury to inform himself, or the President, or Congress, or 
anybody else about what is the current financial condition of the 
government of the United States. . . . 

Mr. Fitzgerald (Chairman of House Subcommittee): How 
does it happen that these are not rendered in the Treasury? 

Mr. Cleveland: The account in the Treasury is for money 
advanced to disbursing agents. These accounts do not show 
what obligations are paid until after vouchers are audited; 
that is, the record of payments is from three months to a year 
and a half behind. There are from $300,000,000 to $700,000,000 
of unaudited payments not on the books. That is as close as 
you can get to the obligations of the government of the United 
States from the books of the Treasury. 

What a commentary upon the civic purblindness of the 
American people! In May, 19 12, not even the Secretary 
of the Treasury could come within fifty millions of guessing 
the actual financial condition of the federal government. 

And as for business methods, the federal government 
still remains an almost unexplored kitchen-midden of 
obsolete practices. In a vague way we have known that 
the government employed in the neighborhood of four 
hundred thousand men and women, that it transacted a 
business as varied as that of the entire commercial world, 
and that it spent more than a billion dollars annually, and 
yet an investigation reveals that the government is 

267 



THE WOUK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

neither coherent as a business organization nor efficient 
as an instrument of public welfare. On a magnified scale 
it possesses all the characteristics of a sprawling mushroom 
town. Through lack of coordination and planning its 
services are in a perennial state of partial demoralization ; 
departments, divisions, bureaus that should be bound to- 
gether by a common intelligence, a common purpose, and 
a conscious spirit of cooperation in the public interest are 
scattered, mutually ignorant of one another's activities 
and equipment, often hostile therefore, and at cross 
purposes. And because of this vast planlessness millions 
of public money run to waste. 

This reckless folly runs through the administration of 
all our governmental activities — state, city, county, and 
district. Why does such a condition of aifairs exist? 
It arises from two things: First, from the ingrained belief 
among the rank and file of our citizens that the public 
treasury is a general pork-barrel; that, national, state, 
city, county, and district governments being of, for, and 
by the people, their treasuries should be the common spoil 
of the people; and, second, from the hoary tradition that, 
since public offices and jobs are few in comparison to the 
total number of the people, there should be rotation and 
duplication in office so that as many faithful servants of 
the triumphant machine as possible may have their turn 
at the public trencher. For generations the public 
appointments have been determined not by the fitness of 
the candidate or by the wisdom of his program, but by his 
loyalty to the party machine and the lobbies back of the 
machine. 

But the bitter fruitage of the belief that public business 
is for private ends and that public affairs can be efficiently 
administered with divided responsibility and by men 
inexperienced in the special business of their offices has 
caused a general awakening, a nation-wide revolt against 
the misuse of public office and public funds. In the reck- 

268 



THE STATE SUPERINTENDENT 

less scramble for special privilege some of the people have 
gotten ahead, the majority have been "disinherited." It 
should have been manifest at the start that this result was 
inevitable. Our democracy cannot be successful until 
pubHc office is regarded as a public trust to be administered 
in the common interest, and until public appropriations 
are voted, not as a reward for service to a lobby or machine, 
but for the execution of an intelHgently considered program 
openly proposed by technical experts in the permanent 
civil service. 

In the fundamentally important business of education — 
the making of efficient citizens from the raw material of 
childhood — the essential division of administration and 
supervision have been crippled and demoralized by the 
pervasiveness of this pork-barrel philosophy of govern- 
ment. Public education can never be successful in the 
best sense until the rank and file of our citizens understand, 
and until they compel our legislators to understand — and 
indeed refuse to send to the halls of legislation those who 
do not understand — that the function of the state super- 
intendent of public instruction as the administrator in the 
public-school system is to see that every dollar voted in 
the educational budget goes for educational purposes, and 
that his function as supervisor is to see that the work for 
which money is spent is well done and done in compliance 
with the educational demands of district, county, city, and 
state. The welfare of our public-school system requires 
an educational program, an educational budget based upon 
that program, an administrative staff to look after the busi- 
ness management of educational funds,and a supervisory 
staff to look after the efficiency of the teaching force. 

While, therefore, the outlook for a larger and more 
extended field of usefulness in this important office has 
been very discouraging, there is another side to it that is 
very encouraging. The opporttmities for constructive 
statesmanship in educational policies are greater than ever 

269 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

before because of this awakening of the people everywhere 
in this country; because the people seem determined to 
take possession of their own governmental affairs — federal, 
state, county, and city — and to have these affairs admin- 
istered and supervised intelligently and sanely for the 
general welfare. This awakening of the people promises 
a just and proper appreciation of intelligent and unselfish 
leadership and service — an appreciation that will not 
permit it to be hampered and endangered by partisanship 
and by the use of public ofhce for private ends. 

The state superintendency has never been the place 
for the man who, while using it as a stepping-stone to 
something "better," has himself proven a stumbling- 
block to educational progress. And to-day, when public 
education has taken on a new meaning; when that 
meaning has broadened from academic scholarship to 
include also a training in all the activities of life; when 
the demand is made that education shall have as its 
conscious purpose the making of an efficient citizenship; 
when the business of education has grown to such enor- 
mous proportions that it reaches into and has much to do 
with the affairs of every county and district and com- 
munity and home; when, in fact, it influences to an 
increasing extent every individual in the state and nation, 
and affects his mental, physical, industrial, and social 
welfare — a type of leadership is demanded that calls for 
initiative with a clear outlook and a broad comprehension, 
for training of the highest order, for moral courage that 
will not compromise the rights of the children; for a 
consecration that not only believes in the sublime work of 
making citizens, but lives that belief. 

Initiative, training, courage, consecration — all are es- 
sential, but in importance the last is first, for without 
consecration the other qualities will not have the "stay- 
ing" quality necessary, while with it they will be perme- 
ated with enthusiasm — with a passion for service. 

270 



THE STATE SUPERINTENDENT 

In the organization of country life it is necessary to 
go into **the very heart of the people's every-day experi- 
ences"; and this is the work of the rural schools. The 
state superintendent, then, must have, first, an educa- 
tional program. To have a sound educational program 
that will be of lasting benefit to the people whom he 
represents he must be intimately acquainted with the 
history of his people, with their customs, their traditions, 
their ways of Hving, their aspirations, their limitations, 
their industrial and social conditions, their capacities. 
He must be intimately acquainted with the educational 
programs of every other state in the Union, else he will, 
as has been so often done, mistake his impulses and those 
of others for educational principles and policies, and will 
thus dissipate or misdirect the opporttmities of genera- 
tions of children who are to be future citizens of his 
commonwealth. This lack of knowledge, this provincial 
conceit, has been disastrous in nearly every line of govern- 
mental effort in this country. 

For the same reason he must be intimatel}^ acquainted 
with the educational program of the United States Bureau 
of Education and with the information which the Bureau 
so gladly furnishes to seekers after knowledge. He must be 
acquainted with the educational programs of other coun- 
tries in so far as they relate to the problems, present or 
future, of his own state. All of this requires hard study 
and extended research and comparison. It requires a 
proper perspective, and this in turn requires a constructive 
imagination. 

But a knowledge of these problems and programs, and 
a definite program of his own, are of no value unless they 
are made of service to others. This knowledge and this 
educational program must be disseminated in bulletins 
and circulars and articles, and in addresses informing and 
educating the people to the support of this program. 
There is no greater field for effective service to-day by a 

271 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

state superintendent of public instruction than in a con- 
tinuous and state-wide campaign on every phase of pub- 
lic education. To conduct such a campaign on an intel- 
ligent basis and in a manner to impress the hearts and 
convince the minds of the people he must understand 
the legitimate function of public education — to produce 
efficient citizenship. 

He must understand that an efficient citizen is one who 
has health of body, a trained mind and hand, and a 
desire to serve the state. He must appreciate, therefore, 
that public education has to do with the health of the 
individual child and with the public health; and he must 
understand and be able to discuss questions of lighting, 
ventilation, sanitation, recreation, fatigue, in their relation 
to the school program. He must have both the desire and 
the intelligence to cooperate with the state board of 
health and with the local health officers in bringing about 
the highest efficiency in the enforcement of sanitary 
regulations in the school and in the community. 

He must understand clearly the close relations between 
good roads and good schools, between bad roads and poor 
schools; he must be able to discuss intelligently and in- 
terestingly the effect of good roads in encouraging the 
consolidation of schools and the effect of consolidation in 
encouraging the building of good roads. He must be 
able to show the tremendous increase in power for public 
service that can be secured by the advocates of good roads 
and the advocates of good schools through cooperative 
organization for the benefit of both. 

He must understand clearly what is meant by linking 
up the Hfe of the school with the life of the commimity; 
what is meant by Hfe-fitting schools; what is meant by 
organizing and directing the normal activities of the 
children and by concentrating these activities upon the 
every-day activities of the community; what is meant 
by evolving, from the experiences of the children in their 

272 



o 

O 



> 

t-H 

H 
H 

o 




THE STATE SUPERINTENDENT 

relation to the experiences of the community, a course of 
study; what is meant by taking the experiences of the 
children — their fimd of knowledge with which they come 
to the school — and capitalizing these experiences by direct- 
ing them through the channels of arithmetic, language, 
grammar, reading, geography, history, spelHng, botany, 
drawing, music, literature, upon the community activities. 
He must understand clearly and must be able to convince 
the people at large that the educational process is just 
as good out of the schoolhouse as it is in it, if it is good at 
all; that education is education whether it is in a home, 
in a garden, out on the farm, under a tree, in a school- 
yard, or in a schoolhouse. 

He will understand and be able to make it clear to his 
constituency that education is a matter of life for life, 
beginning with life and ending with life, and not a matter 
of childhood for childhood, beginning with childhood and 
ending with childhood. He will convince the people, 
therefore, that the child should not be in school five or 
six or eight or ten months in the year for a term of years 
and then stop being educated, but that he should be under- 
going the educative process in school and out of school aU 
the time. He will understand and he will convince the 
people that if anything in life is worth doing it is worth 
doing well, and whether it be work or play, whether it be 
plowing a row of com or reading Greek, whether it be 
studying music or studying tomatoes, whether it be digging 
a ditch or performing an operation in surgery, it is best 
done when he who does it has been trained to do it with 
efficiency and with a passion to do it better than it has ever 
been done before. With this view of education for efficient 
citizenship he will plead for an organization of all the 
people to educate all the people for the benefit of all the 
people; that every man may find his place, may know 
his work, and may do it in cooperation with his neighbors. 

The state superintendent must understand clearly and 
19 273 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

profoundly that the fundamental business of the country- 
people is production on and out of the land ; that agricul- 
ture is the basis on which all other businesses rely. He 
must see that the time is now at hand when the rural 
public school controls the food supply of the nation. He 
must imderstand that this is the era of education in 
agriculture; that agriculture must no longer be, in the 
words of Seaman A. Knapp, "a series of motions in- 
herited from Adam," but must be one of the "learned 
professions." He must not only see that the boy and 
the man who desire to make a living out of the land shall 
be trained for that profession as carefully as the doctor 
and the lawyer must be trained for their professions, but 
he must understand, and be able to make his constituency 
understand, that the present courses of study do not 
permit this, that they are lopsided, and that the country 
boy and girl are entitled to an education that functions 
in living on the land and dealing with the soil. He must 
arouse the people to insist upon a school program that 
provides not only for the training of the children in the 
school and on the school-garden and school-farm, but also 
for the training of these children in their homes, in their 
home-gardens, and on their home-farms. 

He will understand clearly that much of the home has 
gone into the factory; he will understand the importance 
of educating boys and girls in the economics of the home, 
in a home efficiency that will get the maximum of results 
for every mental and physical effort put forth. He will 
be able to explain the relation of these things to legitimate 
school-work and the illegitimacy of any school-work that 
does not function in home efficiency. 

In shaping a school program for the rural schools the 
state superintendent will see the necessity of extension 
and demonstration work done by and through the school. 
He will understand and he will be able to convince the 
adult communities that it is the business of the school 

274 



THE STATE SUPERINTENDENT 

to give a practical instruction in all phases of agriculture 
to the boys and girls, not merely at school, but at their 
homes. With power he will plead for a course of instruc- 
tion that will reach the thousands of boys and girls, 
young men and young women, middle-aged men and 
middle-aged women, who work inefficiently because un- 
trained, but who desire a training that is not only adapted 
to their needs but is adjusted to their hours of labor; 
and he will use all of his influence to see that every school 
program shall be so shaped that it will reach old and 
young — men and women, boys and girls — wherever a hu- 
man being desires instruction. 

But unless he is superficial in his knowledge and vision 
and purpose he will see that the school program shall not 
only include extension and demonstration work that 
trains the boy and his father how to double and quadruple 
production on the farm, and that will train the girl and her 
mother how to double and quadruple production in the 
garden and in the poultry yard, but shall also include 
the vital study of the proper marketing of these products. 
He will iinderstand definitely that increased production 
directly affects the price of land and the rental value of 
land. He mil know that increased production by a boy 
or man, girl or woman, does not always mean the increased 
prosperity of the producer, and he will see the relation 
that exists between the owner of the land and the in- 
creased production, whether the owner increases the pro- 
duction or not. He will believe that it is legitimate work 
for the rural school to teach its students, young and old, 
how to organize purchasing and selling agencies for the 
benefit of its members; how to cooperate in all matters 
of marketing. He will make a study of rural credits and 
the value of cooperative credits. 

He will understand, and will say to his constituency, that 
the training of Johnny and his father, and of Mary and her 
mother, to double or quadruple production will be of no 

275 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

benefit to them if they are to be the victims for just that 
much more exploitation by the land-speculator, the com- 
mission-merchant, the middleman, the corporation, or the 
individual whose purpose is to make money out of the 
labors and the increased efficiency of Johnny and his 
father, of Mary and her mother. If Johnny and Mary 
and their parents do not own the land, there in not a state 
in the Union that protects them from exploitation by land- 
owners who are not land-users, and there is not a state in 
the Union that does not tax the industry of these parents 
and their children for the sake of the man who owns the 
land but does not himself use it. The state superintendent 
will understand that the man who owns the land owns 
the man on the land, and he will in his campaigns of edu- 
cation ask the citizens of his state what it profits the state 
or Johnny to train Johnny to get more corn on an acre, of 
which he is not the owner, if the owner of that land or of 
similar land at once raises the price or the rent so as to 
realize a fat interest or return on Johnny's increased 
efficiency. 

These are issues which the state superintendent should 
have no inclination to avoid, because they are inextricably 
interwoven with the work of the rural school, if that school 
is to make efficient citizens, and if that school is to secure 
to these citizens the reward of their increased efficiency. 

For the state superintendent to say that these are 
matters of politics or of legislation or of governmental 
policy outside the domain of education is for him to con- 
fess either that he has not the courage to face the issues 
involved or that he does not believe that the function of 
public education is to produce efficient citizens. Either 
the land question must be considered in connection with 
extension and demonstration work by and through the 
schools, or that work must be stopped. Now that Uncle 
Sam is no longer giving away land, now that free land is 
not increasing in area while people are increasing in 

276 



THE STATE SUPERINTENDENT 

number, the question of the exploitation of Johnny and 
Mary is becoming more and more acute. 

There are tens of thousands of Johnnys and Marys who 
desire to make a living on the land. Their attention 
is being called to the possibilities of a good living on the 
land by the extension and demonstration work that is 
being done throughout the United States. They are 
learning scientific agriculture and gardening, and as soon 
as they become of age they will seek land on which to 
make a living based on their scientific knowledge taught 
them by and through the schools; but most of these tens 
of thousands of Johnnys and Marys do not own any land, 
and Uncle Sam has no more to give them. How are they 
to get it? While there are tens of thousands of Johnnys 
and Marys without land and wishing to get it in order to 
make a living, there are millions upon millions of acres 
of vacant land on which these Johnnys and Marys are not 
permitted to go, because these acres are held off the mar- 
ket by speculators who refuse to use the land for any 
purposes except to farm the profits out of these Johnnys 
and Marys; and so these land-seekers who desire to use 
the land are debarred from that use by landowners who 
themselves refuse to use the land and who refuse to permit 
its use unless Johnny and Mary consent to produce, not 
for themselves, but for these landowners. 

And if Johnny and Mary, in their eagerness to make a 
living out of the land by becoming producers on that land, 
rent the land and cause its acres to produce two or three 
times as much as they ever did before — which they have 
been taught to do by this extension and demonstration 
work — what will be the result so far as Johnny and Mary 
are concerned? In his book on Land and Labor — Lessons 
from Belgium, Rowntree says, "Every improvement in 
agricultural methods, every fresh discovery which goes 
to increase the yield from the land, every economy of 
labor, whether by means of machinery or of cooperation, 

277 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

has two results — the immediate raising of the small 
holder's profits and the ultimate raising of his rents." 
And again he says, "It has been shown that the advan- 
tages arising from the development of transport facilities, 
good agricultural education, the wise employment of 
chemical manure, cooperation for the economical purchase 
of feed-stuffs and seeds, and the energy spent on improving 
the live stock, tiltimately go past the tenants to the 
owner of the land." 

The state superintendent will realize that this is a 
question of to-day, and that wisdom demands a campaign 
of education among the people to bring about a just 
treatment of the tens of thousands of young men and 
young women whose attention is being directed to a living 
on the land. He will see the injustice and the folly of 
using the public school — which is the greatest organization 
on earth for the making of efficient citizens, and to which 
organization the nation must look for its food-supply — 
he will see the folly of using this organization to arouse the 
interest of tens of thousands of young men and women in 
agricultural production and to teach them how to double 
and quadruple the production per acre, and then supinely 
permit the continuance of a land policy that puts a 
premium on the ownership of land without using it, and 
puts a heavy tax on the use of land without owning it. It 
will be hard for him or any one else to explain to Johnny 
and Mary why the man who owns the land but does not 
use it is lightly taxed, while the man who uses the land 
but does not own it is heavily taxed. It will be hard for 
him to explain to Johnny and Mary why the man who 
uses land is heavily taxed on his industry, while the man 
who owns land but does not use it is lightly taxed on his 
idleness. The state superintendent will educate the 
people at large to see that, while America has been called 
the land of opportunity, there is no opportunity except in 
land, and that this has been the land of opportunity only 

278 



THE STATE SUPERINTENDENT 

because in the past it has given every seeker an oppor- 
tunity on the land. 

Closely allied to the extension and demonstration work 
through which alone is there any escape from national 
hunger, and inextricably interwoven with which is the 
land question, is the matter of taxation and finance. 
Everywhere the schools are suffering for lack of money, 
everywhere the opportunities of the children are thwarted, 
because the money that should go to the schools is with- 
held. Large sums are wasted in the public business that 
might well be used for educational purposes, but large 
sums also never reach the public treasury that in common 
justice belong to the public. The public is daily creating 
values, and is then permitting private interests to gather 
these values instead of insisting by law that these values 
created by the public shall be collected by the public for 
the public use. Were this done, the children's oppor- 
tunities would not be hampered, their development 
would not be limited, and there would no longer be a lack 
of funds for the purpose of educating the seventeen 
million children and youth of our land for efficient citi- 
zenship. The state superintendent will see, and in his 
campaigns of education will instruct the people in, the 
close relationship existing between the rural-school 
work, the land question, and the question of taxation. 

A county superintendent of schools said to a state super- 
intendent of public instruction: "My county runs right 
up to the city of W . Our tax rate is at the maxi- 
mum allowed by law, and yet our schools are suffering 
for lack of money. What can I do?" " How about your 
assessments?" asked the state superintendent. '*0h," 
said the county superintendent, *'the assessments are very 
low." *'Is that because the land is without value?" 
**0h no, the land is very valuable. Land speculators are 
selling the land in lots at a much higher price for each lot 
than an entire acre is assessed for taxation." "Well," 

279 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

said the state superintendent, **what makes that land 
valuable enough to sell in lots?" "Why, it is because 
people wish to get out of the city and build on them." 
' ' Well, what makes the land valuable, then — the fact that 
it is owned by somebody who has not improved it, or the 
fact that the people living near it have made it valuable?" 
"The fact that large numbers of people live near it," said 
the county superintendent. "Then if the people have 
made it valuable why do they permit private individuals 
to reap the value? Why don't the people reach out and 
take for the common welfare the values made by the 
people? My suggestion to you is to go back home and 
preach justice in taxation and to urge upon the people to 
quit fining industry by taxation and to get rid of the 
parasites." 

The state superintendent of public instruction will be 
able to present both to the people at large and to their 
representatives in the state legislature the best principles 
and methods of financial aid by the state for the promo- 
tion of education in the local communities. Realizing 
that the work of the rural school is to produce efficient 
citizenship, he will advocate state aid that will not pauper- 
ize or pensionize the local communities, but will stimulate 
them to the largest degree of self-help; that will give the 
greatest amount of aid where it is most needed; that will 
distribute the financial aid of the state according to the 
needs of the communities, and not according to the dic- 
tates of political expediency. He will, of course, from his 
study of the experiences of other states, understand that 
the mere giving of money by the state without attaching 
legitimate conditions is fatuous. He will see the folly of a 
statement recently made by one educational leader that 
the rural-school problem in his state had been solved be- 
cause the state had given one thousand dollars to each 
rural school. He will know that problems are not solved 
in this way. He will fully understand that the nearer he 

280 



THE STATE SUPERINTENDENT 

gets to a definite educational program the nearer he gets to 
the solution of the problem of finance. He will under- 
stand that a financial budget does not precede, but follows, 
an educational program, and that the lack and the waste 
of public-school funds arises mainly from a lack of under- 
standing and appreciation of this stern fact. 

The states which have gotten the most satisfactory 
results from the expenditure of school funds are those 
which have both local and state school taxes and which 
give state aid only for specific purposes and follow up 
the gifts with close inspection. It is everywhere recog- 
nized now that tmconditional gifts from the state are 
largely wasted and probably do more harm than good. 
Funds for specific purposes given by the state with 
certain conditions attached have been exceedingly fruitful 
in results; as, for example, a state high-school fund, a 
graded-school fund, a daily-attendance fund, an agricul- 
tural-education fund, a manual-training fund, a trans- 
portation fund, etc., followed by close inspection and 
given on condition that the local communities shall do so 
much for themselves in the way of finance before receiving 
this aid. Almost any community will make a special and 
sometimes extraordinary effort to meet the state condi- 
tions by local taxation and local contribution in order to 
secure the state funds. 

A large number of states have one or more of the state 
school funds mentioned above. North Dakota has an 
excellent law to encourage the association of rural schools 
into one group for the introduction of industrial work, 
and Minnesota has a similar plan. The state superin- 
tendent of public instruction, having familiarized him- 
self not only with the laws in the various states in regard 
to state aid, but also with the results which have been 
obtained from the workings of these laws, will inform the 
people, and will prevent much of the half-baked legislation 
with which so many of the states have been afflicted in the 

281 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

past, because of the ignorance of legislators who regard 
their impulses as thoughts. 

The state superintendent, realizing that the sole purpose 
of public education is to produce an efficient citizenship 
and that this efficient citizenship must be based upon a 
healthy body, a trained capacity, and a desire to serve the 
state, will advocate before the people plans for the proper 
training of those who are to be the citizen-makers — the 
teachers — so that these citizen-makers may go to their 
work with the highest degree of trained efficiency and with 
a full knowledge of the purpose for which they are sent. 
He must be able to argue, to debate, to plead, to convince, 
for he will need to break through the crust of custom and 
the thickness of tradition, which have accumulated about 
our courses of study and which have done so much to per- 
petuate class education, which has no place in a democracy. 

Gathering about him and consulting with progressive 
leaders in education, in 'agriculture, and in all the other 
activities that touch rural life, he will formulate a school 
program that will encourage the proper functioning of the 
school-work in terms of citizenship. He will make it 
clear to his constituency, and especially to all those en- 
gaged in school-work, that life is more than raiment, and 
that the life of the children as shown in their enthusiasms, 
their interests, their experiences, and their activities must 
not be wrapped up in the raiment of formalism, of red 
tape, of statistics. 

Having formulated an educational program, and having 
in his campaigns of education enlightened the people as 
to this program, he will have little difficiilty in presenting 
an educational budget that will have the sympathy and 
support of an educated public. He can then show the 
necessity for expert assistants to act as an administrative 
staff to look after the business management of educational 
funds and of a stafE of supervisors to look after the effi- 
ciency of the teaching force. 

282 



THE STATE SUPERINTENDENT 

Is this an impossible task for a man occupying the 
position of leader to thousands of teachers and hundreds 
of thousands of children? Is it asking too much of a man 
who has the opporttinity and the privilege of actually 
shaping the character of the citizenship of his state for 
generations to come? Can anything be too much to ask 
at the hands of a man or a woman who has or who seeks 
the most important office in any commonwealth in the 
Union? Such men and women have been among us, such 
men and women should be demanded by the peoples of 
our states, and such men and women should be encouraged 
to seek this position of leadership, and should be protected 
in this position as long as they exhibit those qualities that 
make a great educational leader — initiative, training, 
courage, and consecration. 



INDEX 



Adams, Rev. Claire S., on sanitation, 

29. 
Adenoids, 27, 32, 33, 261. 
Agricultural colleges, inauguration, 67; 

interest in, 67, 68, 72; experimenters 

in, 70, 71. 
Agricultural high schools, 69, 71. 
Alton, George B., on demonstration 

work in rural schools, 109, no. 
Annunciator, 67. 
Apple, study of, 118, 119- 
Astigmatism, 261. 
Athletic teams, 166. 
Auditoriums, 177. i79. 181, 182, 186. 

Bench work, 204, 205, 208. 

Binet, Professor, mental tests, 37. 

Browne, Mrs. Hetty S., on methods em- 
ployed at Rock Hill Experimental 
School, 57-59- 

Burruss, Julian A., on normal-school 
training, 216, 217. 

Census of Division of Agriculture 
FOR 1910, 2; of 1900, 7. 

Central school. See Consolidated schools. 

Children, health of, 26-41; medical in- 
spection started, 27; school clinics, 28; 
sanitation, 29; inspection by physi- 
cians, 30; protection against com- 
municable diseases, 31 ; primary phys- 
ical defects, 32, 33, 34; sex hygiene, 3S; 
dullness in, 36, 37; survey of mental 
powers, 43, 45; social attitude, 44; 
personal hygiene, 51. 

Citizen-maker, the, 193-223; aid to, 
224-245. 

Clinics, school, 28. 

Cloakrooms, 145, 177. 

Cokato schools and demonstration work, 
106, 108, 109, no. III, 119. 

Communicable disease, 27, 30, 31. 

Community survey, 10-25; small cost, 
25- 

Compulsory school-attendance law, 131, 
237. 

Congressional-district schools, 69. 

Consolidated schools, 173-192; solution 
of rural-school problem, 175; and 
anti- social patron, 176; auditorium 



as meeting-place for community pur- 
poses, 177, 178, 179; effect on enrol- 
ment and attendance, 178, 179, 181, 
184, 189, 190; benefit to community, 
182,183; progress, 184; objections to, 
185; transportation, 187; cost, 190,191. 

Consumption, 261, 

Continuation-schools for apprentices, 63, 
64; in Munich, 64-66. 

Cooke, Dr. L. J., on health of children, 
28, 29. 

Cooking clubs, 72. 

Cooking laboratory, 229; equipment, 
suggestive list, 229, 230; course of 
study, 230-233. 

Corn clubs, boys', 18, 72, 96, 97, 104, 
114, 116, 117, 181, 182, 200. 

Cornell, Dr. Walter S., on medical in- 
spection for school-children, 30-32; 
on dullness in children, 36, 37; on re- 
muneration for medical inspector, 38, 
39- 

Coulter, J. L., on Census of 1910, 2. 

County agricultural schools, 69; farm- 
life school, 69. 

County superintendent, 246-261; ap- 
pointment, 246; duties, 247, 257, 258; 
opportunities, 248, 249, 256; some 
incidents, 249-254; must be fearless, 
260. 

Courses in agriculture, 68. 

Cows, keeping individual records of, 114; 
testing, 209. 

Cow-testing association in Maryland, 
III. 

Curtiss, Charles F., on system of farm 
tenantry, 7. 

Deafness, 32, 33. 34- 

Debating clubs, 182. 

Demonstration trains, 68, 223. 

Demonstration work, part of rural- 
school work, 105-107; at Cokato, 106, 
108, hi; at Sparks, 111-113, 120; in 
Mississippi, 113, 120; in Louisiana, 
113, 120; in Massachusetts, 116; in 
Virginia, 117, 120. 

Department of Church and Country 
Life of the Presbyterian Board of 
Home Missions, 4, 5, 19, 20. 



285 



THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 



Disease, protection against, 31. 
Domestic-science schools, 62, 71. 
Drainage system, 180. 
Dresslar, Dr. F. B., on medical inspection, 

28. 
Drinking-fountains, 147. 
Drinking- wells, 180. 
Dull children, 36; mental tests for, 37. 

Edison, Thomas A., experiments, 69. 
Eggleston, J. D., on development of 

consolidation and transportation in 

Virginia, 173-192. 
Exploiter, the, 5, 6. 
Extension work, 71-85. 
Eyesight, imperfect, 27, 32, 33, 34. 42,132. 

Farm boarding-schools, 82. 

Farm land, increased price of, 6. 

Farm tenantry, system of, 6, 7. 

Farmers' Cooperative Demonstration 
work, 82, 85-103; methods, 87, 88, 89; 
some illustrations, 90-95; value of, 
100-103 ; improvement of methods, 223. 

Farmers' institutes, 68, 182. 

Federal Commission on Economy and 
Efficiency, survey of the national 
government, 265, 266, 267. 

Fertilizers, 115, 116, 119. 149. 

Flat chest, 139. 

Fly, disease-carrier, 148; breeding- 
place, 148, 149. 

Games, 163-166. 
Germ-diseases, 27, I37. 148. I50. 
Girls' garden and canning clubs, 73, 74, 
98, 99, 104, 114, 116, 117, 182, 200. 

Health of school-children, 26-41; 
medical inspection, 27, 30, 31, 32; 
primary physical defects, 27, 32-35; 
clinics, 28; protection against com- 
municable diseases, 31; orthopedic de- 
fects, 35 ; nervous derangements, 35; 
sex hygiene, 35; defective child, 36; 
mental tests, 37. 

High cost of living, causes of, 2. 

Hogs inoculated for cholera, 113. 

Home-garden, influence, 78. 

Hookworm, 150, 261. 

Hygiene, personal, 29, 51; sex, 35. 

Kerschensteiner, Dr. Georg, on Mu- 
nich's continuation-schools, 65, 66. 

" Kid-car," 174. 

Kindergarten, development, 62. 

Knapp, Dr. Seaman A., in charge of co- 
operative demonstration work, 88, 
89; organized boys' corn clubs, 96; 
girls' garden and canning clubs, 98, 
99; quoted, 274. 

Land Farmer, the, 5, 6. 

Land and Labor — Lessons from Belgium, 

277. 



Land-speculator, 276. 

Laundry-room, 203, 204. 

Lavatories, 147-152, 180. 

Light, diffusion of, 132-134. 

Literary clubs, 182. 

Lunches, school, 53, 55, 73, 119, 145. 

Manual training, 62, 180, 205. 

Mechanical colleges, inauguration, 67. 

Medical inspection in schools, intro- 
duced, 27-28; by physicians, 30-34; 
cost, 38-40. 

Mental tests for dull children, 37. 

Metal Trades Associations of Cincinnati, 
63. 

Midday meal, value of, 55. 

Middlemen, evils of, loi, 103, 276. 

Misuse of public funds, 267, 268. 

Monahan, A. C, inquiry into status of 
rural schools, 194, 195, 196, 199. 

"Movable" schools, 182, 223. 

Moving pictures, 146. 

Munich continuation-schools, compul- 
sory, 64; population, 65; Dr. Ker- 
schensteiner on, 65, 66. 

Munroe, John, and demonstration work, 
105, 109. 

Nervous derangements, 35. 

Normal schools, course for rural-school 
teachers, 214-222; reports on number 
of graduates in rural -school work, 224- 
226. 

Nutrition, poor, 32, 34. 

One-teacher schools, number of, 195; 
enrolment in, 196. 

Parents' meetings, 35. 

Pictures for classrooms, suggestive list, 

228. 
Pig clubs, 72, 114, 116, 182. 
Pioneer, the, 5, 6. 
Playgrounds, 163-166, 178. 
Plunkett, Sir Horace, on reorganization 

of country life, 15, 16, 17. 
Pneumonia, 150. 
Potato clubs, 18. 
Poultry clubs, 182. 
Preliminary Report on Conditions and 

Needs of Rural Schools in Wisconsin, 

194. 195. 
Primary physical defects in children, 

27, 32, 33, 34. 35- 
Public school, the, work of, 10, 11. 

Rest, periods of, 161, 162, 163. 

Roads, bad, 185. 

Rock Hill Experimental School, course 
of study, 50-61; work in garden, 52; 
Bean Book, 52; preparation for mid- 
day meal, 53, 54; value of, 55; work 
in the kitchen, 55 ; in the workshop 
and museum, 56; in the woods and 
fields, 56; methods followed, S7-6i. 



j86 



INDEX 



Ross, J. B., and exploitation of land, 6. 

Round shoulders, 139. 

Rules, arbitra]-y. 45. 46; children share 

in, 47, 48. 
Rural schools and demonstration work, 

105, 123. 
Rural-school teachers, migratory flock, 

193, 194; average length of service, 

194, 195; underpaid, 196; salaries, 
197, 198, 205, 213, 214; living accom- 
modations, 198, 199, 212. 

Rural schools, reorganization program, 
I, 9; control the food-supply, 3, 10; 
objects of, 8; problems confronting 
workers, 12, 13, 14. 

Sanitary closets, 147-152. 

Sanitation, lack of knowledge of, 29. 

School, clinics, 28; curriculum, 69, 70, 
72, 108; farm, 80, 81, 121; garden 
clubs, 72, 73, 74-78, 79, 81, 121, 208, 
229; improvement league, 180; lunch, 
53. 55, 73, 119. 145; library, 155-160; 
trustees, 125, 126, 128; planning, 171, 
172. 

School-plant, the, 124-146; site, 22; 
community survey, 124; fundamen- 
tal considerations, 125; trustees, 125, 
126, 128, 137; acreage, 126, 127; lo- 
cation, 127; easy of access, 127, 129; 
healthful location, 128; herding, 129; 
teachers, 130; rooms, 131, 132; light, 
132, 133, 134; color for walls and 
ceilings, 134; arched windows, 134; 
decorations, 134; pictures, 135; ven- 
tilation, 135-139; forced-draught sys- 
tem, 136; the jacket stove, 137, 138; 
heating, 138, 139; the janitor, 139; 
seating, 139-144; "patent" desk, 140, 
142, 145; blackboards, 144; cloak- 
room, 145; lunches, 145; moving 
pictures, 146; equipment, 147-172; 
water system, 147; sanitary closets, 
147-152; movable platforms, 152; 
workrooms, 153, 154; school garden 
and farm, 154; smithy, 154; school- 
cottages, 154, 155; library, 155-160; 
playgrounds, 163-166; trees, 166; 
grass and flowers, 167, 168, 169; the 
auditorium, 170; sheds, 171. 

Schools, widening outlook, 62-85; meth- 
ods followed at Rock Hill, 50-62; 
physical limitations of city, 62; con- 
tinuation, for apprentices, 63-66; in- 
dustrial training in, 66, 67; "mov- 
able," 68, 83; county agricultural, 68, 
69; congressional district, 69; county 
farm-life, 69; agricultural high, 69; 



experimental stage, 69; domestic 
science, 71; extension work in, 71-85; 
farm - boarding, 82; compulsory at- 
tendance, 131, 237; state, funds, 281. 

Seed, tested, 84, iii, 113, n^ ur 117 
118, 182. '' 

Sewing clubs, 72; course of studv, 233. 

Sex hygiene, 35, 36, 218. 

Sparks, Maryland, school at, and demon- 
stration work. III; graduating exer- 
cises, 111-113. 

Spinal curvature, 27, 42, 139, 261. 

Stalls, sheltered, 175. 

State school funds, 281. 

State Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion, 262-283; elected by vote, 262; 
limitations, 264; educational program, 
271; duties, 271-283. 

State supervisors, reports of, 225, 228, 
229, 234, 235, 236, 237; appointment 
of, 237, 238, _239; organized, 239; 
program of cooperation, 240-244. 

Teachers, citizen-makers, 193-223; few 
normal -trained, 224, 226; first aid to, 
224-245. 

Teachers' cottages, 197, 198. 

Teeth, decayed, 27, 32, 33, 34, 42. 

Tenant-farming, 6, 7, 12. 

Tested seed, 84, iir, 113, 114, 115, 117, 
118, 182. 

Text-books as instruments of torture, 
57, 58. 

Three R's, 11, 70, 209. 

Transportation-wagons, 173-192, 203, 
206; number in use, 174; cause of in- 
creased attendance, 181; cost, 187. 

Traveling-library, 157, 158. 

Treatment of books, 160. 

Trucking clubs, 18. 

Trustees, 125, 126, 128, 137. 

Tuberculosis, 150. 

Typhoid fever, 148, 151, 

United States Bureau of Education, 
I, 193. 194. 195. 197, 207, 213, 219, 
224, 271. 

United States Department of Agricul- 
ture, interest in colleges, 67, 68. 

Ventilation, i3S-i39. i45. i77. 
Vision, defective, 27, 32, 33, 34, 42, 132. 

Wander-lust, 155, 162. 

Wilson, Dr. Warren H., on spiritual 
evolution of the American country 
community, 4, s; and rural-commu- 
nity surveys, 19. 



THE END 



OCT 4 I91i 



